Is there a future for XR devices in business?

Extended reality (XR) has been here before. Over the past decade, virtual reality (VR) headsets and augmented reality (AR) pilots have repeatedly promised to transform how people work, only to stall after early experimentation. Bulky hardware, limited battery life, bespoke content, and poor integration with enterprise IT meant that many initiatives never moved beyond proof-of-concept.

Yet interest in XR is rising again. Devices such as Apple Vision Pro, alongside renewed efforts from Samsung and Google to bring XR closer to Android and existing enterprise platforms, suggest the industry believes conditions have finally changed. This time, the narrative is less about spectacle and more about practicality: lighter form factors, longer battery life, edge AI, and tighter ecosystem integration.

The key question for business leaders is not whether XR is impressive, but whether it can deliver sustained return on investment. To answer that, it’s worth examining what genuinely differentiates today’s XR devices, where value is most likely to emerge, and what lessons enterprises must take from earlier failures.

Why XR looks different this time

Earlier waves of VR and AR were largely defined by experimentation rather than operational fit. The hardware existed, but it was not designed to align with how businesses actually function day to day.

“What’s changed is not just capability, but intent,” says Parag Beeraka, senior director of consumer computing and edge AI at Arm.

Today’s devices, he explains, are designed around efficiency, all-day usability, and integration with existing workflows. Lighter designs, split-compute architectures, and on-device AI mean XR can operate as an extension of tools employees already use, rather than as a standalone system requiring specialist rooms, training, and support.

Fabio Goncalves de Oliveira, lecturer in entrepreneurship and innovation at Henley Business School, agrees that the differentiator is not hardware alone. He tells ITPro that early VR and AR headsets were effectively minimum viable products: bulky, uncomfortable, and poorly supported by enterprise-grade software. Over the past two years, however, the surrounding ecosystem has matured significantly.

He points to vendor investment in developer platforms as a crucial change. Rather than focusing solely on headsets, leading players have curated application marketplaces filled with specialist tools for training, collaboration, and design. “The key point for enterprises is that value now sits in the ecosystem, not the headset,” he says. Without well-designed applications that solve real organizational problems, XR remains a technology demo rather than a business tool.

Where businesses are most likely to see XR ROI

While XR is often discussed as a general-purpose interface, experts are clear that value will emerge first in specific functions rather than across the entire organization. At Arm, Beeraka says the strongest returns will come where XR removes friction from tasks that already exist, rather than creating entirely new workflows.

Operations and field-based roles are a clear example. Today, delivery, logistics, and maintenance workers still rely heavily on smartphones for repetitive tasks such as documenting work or checking instructions. AR smart glasses can automate much of this process hands-free, capturing visual evidence and surfacing guidance without interrupting the flow of work.

Training is another area where XR is already demonstrating value. Goncalves de Oliveira notes that a substantial body of academic research shows immersive training improves learning outcomes, particularly in scenarios involving human interaction such as sales conversations, leadership development, or client meetings. XR allows organizations to train large, distributed workforces with greater consistency and lower logistical cost than classroom-based approaches.

From a business perspective, the appeal lies in scalability and cost efficiency. Subscription-based libraries of enterprise XR training applications have lowered entry barriers, while reported benefits such as those measured by PwC include improved confidence, stronger retention, and better job readiness. Risk reduction is an often-overlooked factor, as XR allows employees to rehearse rare or hazardous scenarios safely.

Ayesha Iqbal, a senior member of the IEEE and engineering trainer at the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre, tells ITPro that design and operational functions are also well placed to see near-term returns. “These are areas where immersive tools already support clear, measurable outcomes,” she says, pointing to faster onboarding, skills development, and improved process testing. Recent IEEE research suggests a majority of UK technology leaders expect XR and digital twins to play a growing role in designing and testing prototypes and processes.

By contrast, broader knowledge work is less likely to see sustained ROI in the short term. Many desk-based tasks do not benefit sufficiently from spatial immersion, and productivity gains remain limited unless XR can replace, rather than duplicate, existing tools.

How AI is making XR practical

If XR is to move beyond niche use cases, AI will play a central role. Without it, immersive devices rely on manual interaction and pre-defined content which limits scalability. With on-device and edge AI, XR becomes more responsive and context-aware.

Beeraka explained that AI enables natural language interaction, gesture recognition, and real-time adaptation to what the user is seeing and doing. This matters because enterprises do not want to train employees on complex interfaces. They want systems that respond intuitively and respect privacy by processing data locally where possible. “In many ways, AI turns XR from a visual layer into an intelligent interface,” he says.

Goncalves de Oliveira adds that AI’s impact varies by maturity and use case. In industrial environments, AI-enabled XR is already delivering value through digital twins, allowing organizations to model complex systems and view them in real time to predict the impact of changes before implementing them. In customer-facing functions such as marketing and sales, AI enhances experience by personalizing immersive interactions.

Iqbal emphasizes the importance of contextual assistance. By combining spatial awareness with AI interpretation of task and environment, XR systems can deliver the right guidance at the right moment, particularly in frontline work. She also highlighted content creation as one of the most mature areas of impact, with generative AI significantly reducing the time and skill required to build immersive experiences.

Will XR become everyday enterprise technology?

High-profile devices such as Apple Vision Pro have reignited interest in spatial computing, but their role in enterprise adoption remains contested. Goncalves de Oliveira describes Vision Pro as a strategic signal rather than a practical blueprint. Its real impact lies in demonstrating interaction paradigms and design standards that others will reinterpret into more affordable, task-specific solutions.

Cost, comfort, and infrastructure demands remain significant barriers to large-scale deployment. Spatial computing places heavy pressure on bandwidth and compute resources, while human factors such as fatigue and social acceptability in shared workspaces are still unresolved. For most organisations, XR will make sense as a task-specific augmentation tool rather than a replacement for everyday workstations.

Ecosystem familiarity may prove more important than hardware innovation in determining adoption. Goncalves de Oliveira points to established technology acceptance models, which show that perceived usefulness and ease of use drive sustained uptake. Samsung and Google’s strategy of embedding XR within familiar Android and enterprise ecosystems reduces friction for IT teams and end users alike, making it easier for XR to move beyond pilots.

From an IT and security perspective, the challenges are significant but not insurmountable. Beeraka says manageability, data privacy, and consistency are the main concerns, as XR introduces new sensors and data streams. Advances in edge AI and standardised operating environments are making these devices easier to treat like any other managed endpoint.

Looking ahead five years, experts expect XR to remain a specialized tool rather than a universal workplace interface. That does not mean it lacks a future. Instead, success will depend on whether XR becomes invisible in use, quietly supporting training, operations, and design where it clearly adds value. As Iqbal puts it, immersive interfaces will take hold only where they improve outcomes under real-world conditions.

The lesson from earlier VR failures is clear: pilots are not strategies. Businesses evaluating XR today must focus on real needs, workflow integration, and governance from the outset. If they do, XR may finally move from promise to practical enterprise asset.