Meta is opening a London store to sell AI and VR products (Report)

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

• Top Story: Meta is opening a London store to sell AI and VR products, according to the Daily Telegraph (analysis below)

• Other stories: Leeds City Council has invested £60,000 in VR technology from Cornerstone to help social workers, teachers, and citizens experience the perspective of children in the adoption process, aiming to increase empathy and understanding of trauma (more stories below).

Top story

Meta is opening a London store to sell AI and VR products, according to the Daily Telegraph.

• What happened? According to the Telegraph, Meta is floating the idea to build a retail presence. This follows Microsoft stepping back from a prime Oxford Street location. Where one steps back from the strategy, another steps in.

• Would it work? Oxford Street is the busiest shopping center in Europe (and one with a lot of phone snatchers). It will help Meta build a soft power and presence with its offering. But if Microsoft is stepping back from that strategy and Meta fills in, then I am curious to see how Meta differentiates with its approach to solidify its position.

Other stories

• Fenerbahçe SK has partnered with Napster to launch an AI-powered 3D virtual store for Fenerium, offering interactive, multilingual, and customisable merchandising experiences accessible directly online.

• Leeds City Council has invested £60,000 in VR technology from Cornerstone to help social workers, teachers, and citizens experience the perspective of children in the adoption process, aiming to increase empathy and understanding of trauma.

• Matoug-Elwerfelli (and others) conducted a bibliometric analysis showing that research on VR in restorative dentistry has grown notably since 2019, with the USA, UK, and Netherlands leading contributions.

• Transport for Wales has become the first UK train operator to use VR for front-line staff training, employing a Denova-developed platform that simulates the Class 197 train to enhance immersive, hands-on learning.

• Virtual Decisions, funded by local councils and the Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner, is using VR to help combat knife crime in Stratford.

• VirtuaLens has launched the Immersive IOL Simulator, a VR platform that helps cataract patients explore and compare intraocular lens options through realistic, scenario-based experiences to support informed decision-making.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.

All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.