From the past two to three years, you may have come across with the term Augmented Reality quite often.

You must be thinking that what Augmented Reality is all about and how it will benefit and transform different industries.

Well, Augmented Reality (AR) is an integration of digital information with the user’s environment in real time.

The combination of digital information and the real world isn’t just for smart devices, but a real solution at workplaces. The amazing ability of augmented reality is to portray real-world scenarios on user device and simulating real-world scenarios to mask the challenges faced by different industries in their workplace. This high-end technology has been raising the bar of customer experience by its practical implementation for businesses across various verticals.

But do you know how Augmented Reality impact on various industries?

Let’s have a detail look at the 3 industries that will be revolutionized by Augmented Reality.

Retail

AR is any marketer’s dream, allowing for the creation of an environment in which a brand is positively enforced by the user’s own experience. Smart retailers not only knew their best customers, but also remember their tastes and what they purchased early. The key to being a successful retailer is literally to know your customer. With AR online retailers can fully take advantage of customer-tracking and ad-targeting to take personalization to a new level of accuracy and efficiency.

AR filters help retailers to personalise the in-store experience for shoppers by providing a level of quality customer service and engagement. Mixed reality mannequins with your exact body type will be enhanced with the latest fashion styles that are consistent with past purchases. Such shopping experiences hold the potential to bring a “wow factor” and make you as shopper’s major destinations again. Most of the big brands have adopted AR solutions already to take advantage of the visual dynamics. Shoppers can visit your virtual stores, pick the items just by clicking on the smartphone and have their items delivered directly to their homes once done. Hence, shoppers can see brands and their stock and get engaged in a new way.

Augmented Reality is helping a lot of retailers and marketing professionals in capturing shopper’s preferences and selections. Coca Cola, Spotify and Argos have all used augmented technology to advertise their brands. Using AR, sales representatives can showcase their products in a highly realistic manner directly in the customer’s environment.

Law enforcement and military

When the stakes are high, personnel are more likely to panic and can lead to inconsistencies, especially if they’ve never experienced a risky situation before. Augmented reality works as a way to train military for risky situations that they could experience in the field. The result is expert personnel who know the steps to take because practice made perfect in training.

Augmented reality has been highlighted as a massive interest for the military and law enforcement training. Training is integral for survival; there is literally no margin for error in real-world scenarios. With that in mind, AR can save significant amounts of funding, without compromising the quality of the training for law enforcement and military training.

Virtual Fixtures, the first fully functioning AR system developed at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is aimed to enhance human performance while undertaking manual tasks. With augmented reality application, military personnel get information about a certain territory in real time via a pair of goggles.

Having objects digitally added to a trainee’s field of vision can eliminate the need to have real-life objects available. In addition, AR in training can eliminate that potential flaw, objects can be replaced and reused with a relatively minimal amount of effort and costs to practice a number of different situations to test and evaluate their reactions.

Then there is the safety aspect. Scenarios that would normally endanger the lives of inexperienced officers can be created in a safe environment, opening up the opportunity to create experience in situations that are difficult to recreate.

Crime scene investigation, target acquiring, identification, and terrain reconnaissance – the benefits of AR in the field the list is near endless.

Healthcare

The technological advancements in medications and surgery are transforming inefficient processes of the past to provide quality healthcare solution as healthcare industry is focused directly on human health and well-being. Again, digital reality paired with other technologies to improve productivity and efficiency in patient care. With AR glasses doctors can now make use of time efficiently transcribe all of the doctor-patient interactions.

Even, there are lots of early adopters of this high-end technology to help doctors to perform surgeries more efficiently; AR will also support healthcare organizations in making their processes more accurate and effectual. Also, it will help in tracking workout related data for enhancing fitness, teaching difficult subjects to medical students with visuals.

There are numerous AR applications designed in the medical industries that are helping doctors in their daily process. With AR being used in this industry, surgeons can now focus on how to operate a person with lower risks as AR apps provide them with a 3D view. Using this 3D view of the body part that needs to be operated, surgeons can focus on what is the cause and how that can be treated.

Let’s take an example, Viipar, a video support platform for surgeons that functions via Google Glass, allows a surgeon in one location, project hands onto the display of another surgeon’s Google Glass during a surgery to guide. Another app is AccuVein is a handheld scanner, which projects an image of the skin of the veins, valves and bifurcations underneath to allow doctors and nurses to find veins quickly and without causing them any pain for an injection.

Key takeaway: AR can revolutionize industries

Augmented reality is quickly becoming an economic reality and isn’t a cure-all for the challenges facing healthcare, military and retail sector. But just as the personal computer, the Internet, and the smartphone transformed our economy in ways unimagined at their onset, AR will change how industries and our economy functions. While the technology continues to mature, businesses from various industries continue to adopt AR to improve the efficiency of business processes.