Augmented reality apps for business 2021

Innovative augmented reality (AR) technology is blurring the lines between the virtual and real world. Not only does it provide new ways and approaches of interacting with the clients, but it also improves communications with your coleagues. When applied properly, this technology can unleash the full potential of your company and take it to the next level. Being a key driver of growth for a great number of industries, the AR technology market will amount to 72.7 billion U.S. dollars by 2024, according to MarketsandMarkets. Moreover, mobile apps powered by AR can reach up to 3.5 billion downloads by 2022. This means that AR technology has enormous market potential especially in education, marketing, entertainment, healthcare, real estate, eCommerce and retail, etc. As new powerful and affordable technology has entered the market, businesses should invest in AR-powered tech solutions to bring in more clients and drive more revenue. Sounds impressive, right? Let’s dive into the details below!

Top 10 augmented reality apps for business in 2021

In the age of social distancing, consumers have been forced to migrate to digital channels to meet their needs. Having that in mind, businesses have to explore new ways to bring a more immersive quality to traditional methods of serving their customers. Let’s take a closer look at how AR-powered apps can provide a significant boost to businesses operating in different areas. Don’t hesitate to read!

#1: eCommerce and Retail

Currently, a wide number of companies are looking for new and innovative ways to be more advanced and successful than their competitors. Only by developing an AR-fueled mobile app (Android and/or iOS) can they increase customer loyalty and satisfaction levels, brand awareness and the efficiency of the sales process. Moreover, you can provide consumers with the ability to interact with your products and services in real time as well as display not only the promotions, discounts but also the additional information they would like to know about your products/services. Additionally, consumers can place any piece of furniture such as a sofa or an armchair into their apartments or office settings and select the color without leaving their homes. Let’s discover the benefits of AR apps in eCommerce and retail:

• It enhances the experience by delivering pre-purchase visualization to your prospects
• It helps brands increase customer base and drive their loyalty
• It makes the experience more memorable
• It drives sales process and increases companies’ revenue

#2: Marketing

Currently, the preferences of the customers drive the marketing industry. As new technology becomes more affordable and available, consumers expect new and more engaging experiences from their favorite companies or brands. That’s why it is crucial to keep pace with their demand to meet their needs and deliver more sophisticated experiences to them. Only by implementing AR technology within your marketing strategy can brands offer unique experiences to their customers. Not only does it help customers try products and services before they buy them, but companies can also augment branding materials by turning static elements on business cards and/or brochures into dynamic ones. Not only does it help users scan printed ads such as flyers, business cards, etc. with their mobile devices, but it also allows them to access additional features and functionality and get closer to the brand/company. This helps brands connect with customers on a deeper level than traditional advertising and position their products and services in the best light possible. Here we are going to overview the benefits of AR in mentioned above sector:

• It helps brands to identify user behavior flows
• It allows companies to create marketing strategies for customer retention
• Marketers can define buying decisions of the customers by measuring this engagement
• It enables companies to offer a more personalized user experience based on real-time information about customers’ preferences

#3: Education and Training

It’s no secret that the process of traditional education is dying - currently, education is driven by technologies. According to recent research, the edtech industry will reach up to 681 billion U.S. dollars by 2027 where augmented reality (AR) has strengthened a leading position. With that in mind, companies of any size should focus on developing and implementing AR-powered app solutions in order not to miss out on an attempt to regain market share. Not only do AR-powered solutions help users acquire, process, store and retain the information with ease, but they also make the learning process more engaging, interactive, and fun. Moreover, if you don’t want to invest a huge amount of money and equipment in training, AR technology jumps in to make a change. For example, solutions backed by AR can emulate an environment that closely resembled the real world and allow users to experience specific scenarios by navigating their way through an instruction-led training path at their own pace and conducting unlimited redo’s.

• It helps to increase content understanding
• It motivates users to perform better
• It increases the level of engagement and improves collaboration
• It provides a more effective learning process
• It helps master the practical skills required to perform special tasks

#4: Tourism and Travel

If you run a business in the travel industry, you can entirely transform the travel experiences of your clients. With a mobile app powered by AR, you can offer on-screen information about places of interest, including museums, galleries, landmarks, parks, and other sights as tourists walk somewhere in a slow relaxed way across a city or town. Moreover, you can make sure that no travelers are lost in an unfamiliar city in terms of language barriers - an AR app will offer real-time directions. In addition to that, businesses can also improve their in-house services with AR technology - not only can their guests be offered an AR tour around the hotel, but they can also make use of the amenities available to them. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits for this sector:

• It helps your customers find the way
• It shows information about the city and educates your customers
• It cuts down the language barrier
• It provides a 24/7 tour guide

#5: Healthcare

Being an essential tool of innovation, AR technology redefines what’s possible in healthcare and becomes more useful in this landscape. Not only do AR-powered tech solutions adopt a new approach when presenting new drugs or medical treatments, but they also allow healthcare providers to look at the new therapies mechanisms virtually. That's why procedures that have been prohibited from demonstrating in a hospital/clinic in terms of size, weight or security concerns are now available. Moreover, AR is useful when you need to educate patients and physicians, visualize surgeries and drug pharmacodynamics. For example, surgeons can see a digitized version of the brain as well as the problem they need to fix. With AR-powered solutions, they can practice, improve their surgical techniques and skills in a controlled environment and keep them up to the mark. Here we have presented the benefits of AR in mentioned above sector:

• It helps patients better describe their symptoms that increase the chance of being diagnosed correctly
• It allows surgeons to improve their skills through an AR-powered environment for practice
• It helps visualize the drug’s pharmacodynamics
• It tracks health records and predicts health risks

#6: Business Analytics

AR technology revolutionizes the way business analytics look at data and offers a much greater possibility for analysis. Not only do they have access to actionable data, but they can also attain greater insights and comprehend greater amounts of information quickly and easily. With AR-backed data visualization tools, employees can have a clear understanding of situations within the company that require the analysis of hundreds and thousands of data points. Not only does it help them to visualize the correlation between a wide array of variables, but they can also interact with the AR-driven visuals and gain a detailed look into the data presented. As a result, business leaders or owners can uncover hidden trends and patterns in data and speed up the process of decision-making.

• It enables companies to display the applicable information
• It helps brands monitor their progress
• It enables brands to gain the valuable insights they need and make timely and accurate decisions based on data captured
• It allows brands to identify market trends

#7: Recruitment

Onboarding is a critical part of the recruitment process. Moreover, studies show that employee onboarding has a direct correlation to job satisfaction and employee retention. Through AR technology, new hires can interact with custom-built content that explains complex processes and tells a story about the history, culture, and values of the company. Moreover, you can walk new employees through detailed instructions and real-world tasks their position requires. Not only does it help transform the tedious and time-consuming onboarding process into an engaging and highly personalized experience, but new hires can absorb and retain a great amount of information in a short time. Let’s reveal the benefits for this sector:

• It shortens the learning curve of the new hires
• It facilitates compliance with organizational procedures, mission and culture
• It improves job satisfaction and retention
• It enables companies to attract top talents and build trust

#8: Sport and Game

Currently, augmented reality technology started to gain traction in the sports and game world. If you want to attract and retain more sports viewers, utilizing AR at a broadcasting level is a way out. Not only does it help you clarify key players and the rules, but it also allows you to retain viewers and emphasize key aspects of a game. Only by utilizing AR technology in games can you provide a new way of enhancing overall gamers' experience and completely immerse them in the games they play. Moreover, a variety of AR-backed games such as Math, Alphabet, Storytelling, etc. can make the learning process more fun and interactive as well as let your children develop their existing areas of interest. Let’s overview the benefits of AR in the mentioned above sector:

• It provides interactive content and shows alternative plays and tactics in the game
• It gamifies sports and make it more fun
• It increases engagement for fans and players
• It adds proper navigation and displays infrastructure elements at stadiums and other venues

#9: Manufacturing and Logistics

Generally, turning a concept into a product is a long and time-consuming process. Not only does it require constant communications between several parties and stakeholders, but it needs a number of revisions to approve the initial concept. With that in mind, applying AR-powered apps speed up collaboration between the parties engaged and allows them to see how the product will be developed in real time. Moreover, AR technology helps manufacturers streamline maintenance programs by visualizing the potential failure of equipments and identify the source of the problem. Let’s dive into the benefits for this sector:

• It provides efficient indoor navigation and reduces search and delivery time
• It adds critical information including contents, weight, destination, etc. and handling instructions
• It increases staff productivity and efficiency
• It improves collaboration and streamlines maintenance

#10: Real Estate

Currently, AR technology started to redefine the way people buy real estate properties. According to recent statistics, up to 90% of real estate agencies opt for AR technology to provide better services to their clients. Not only can they easily present the demos and presentations to the clients via the AR-fueled app solution, but they can also show printing catalogs and virtually presented properties with ease. Only by implementing AR solutions can businesses bring in more customers, close deals faster, and drive more revenue. Let’s reveal the benefits of AR in this sector:

• It enables agencies to reach prospects anywhere and anytime
• It allows agencies to eliminate the costs of staging a property
• It increases user engagement through visual interaction and drives more sales
• It provides realtors with key insights about customers’ behavior and preferences

Bottom line: Ready to explore the opportunities of AR/VR applications?

AR-powered solutions have transformed the way companies operate, hire and interact with teams, colleagues and their clients. Increasingly being used in a plethora of business verticals, AR-powered solutions deliver an engaging and highly personalized experience to everybody involved in the business processes. Having that in mind, most companies have already opted for incorporating them into their digital strategies. Only by creatively implementing new technology into their businesses can they derive significant benefits and flourish their businesses. Drop us a line if you are likely to turn any idea into a successful and top-notch AR-powered solution.