Look to the future
According to the latest Gartner report, Top Strategic Predictions for 2025 and Beyond: Riding the AI Whirlwind, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the business landscape and organisations and customers cannot afford to stand still.
However, 10 years ago, CEO of Epic Games and graphics guru Tim Sweeney wrote:
“I believe that augmented reality (AR) will be the biggest technological revolution that happens in our lifetimes… Once you have an augmented reality display, you don’t need any other form of display. Your smartphone does not need a screen. You don’t need a tablet. You don’t need a TV. You just take the screen with you on your glasses wherever you go.”
So, if technology continues to make the impossible possible, where on earth are we with AR today?
The arrival of AR
AR was actually invented by Ivan Sutherland way back in 1968. Named The Sword of Damocles, it was the first head-mounted display for people to experience mixed reality by displaying computer-generated graphics.
Today, AR technology integrates graphics, images, audio, and text into the physical world. It enhances the 3D world by allowing you to see how something may look, smell, feel, or sound (without it being physically held or seen). Companies can use augmented reality for entertainment, education, or marketing products.
AR users can control their presence in the real world with a real-world setting, while VR is completely virtual. VR users are controlled by the system, requiring a headset device, but AR can be accessed with a smartphone. AR enhances both the virtual and real world, while VR only enhances a fictional reality.
Making it real
Companies are increasingly seeing the benefits of using augmented reality to sell their products and services and enhance learning as an immersive experience. Here are just a couple of examples where the technology has been used innovatively and effectively (there are many more!).
Ikea: Furniture arrangements
Using AR lets you view exactly how your sofa will appear in your living room with its unique dimensions and other furniture. Choose various positions to pick the layout that will work best. IKEA does this with its app, so you can view your home through your smartphone and add products to scale.
Smithsonian Museum: AR experiences
Several experiences at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. use AR, such as the Dinosaur Experience exhibition, which brings dinosaurs back to life. The dinosaur experience is well known for making skeleton bones come to life, giving the bones skin and movement through a mobile app.
Other exhibits include ‘Swimming with Orcas’ and ‘The Temple of Invention’, where visitors can learn about the building's history, meet historic figures, and collect virtual cogs to "restore the heart of the temple".
What does the (neuro) science say?
According to researchers at Stanford University, interacting with a virtual person in AR affects how people behave in the physical world. For example, people will avoid sitting on a chair when they’ve just seen a virtual person sit on it. Their findings reflect much of the research on virtual reality. But while VR attempts to simulate a real-life environment and take the user out of their present setting, AR technology layers digital information over the user's physical surroundings.
AR works with behavioural science by providing a way to manipulate and present stimuli in a user's real-world environment. This allows us to study and (potentially) influence behaviours in a more naturalistic and engaging way by simulating real-life situations - offering immediate feedback and creating immersive experiences that can be used to address various behavioural challenges like phobias, addiction, and the development of social skills.
Imagine bringing therapy directly into a patient’s home with guided instruction and realistic props. Once just a fantasy, augmented reality (AR) is now pushing neuroscience research into simulations to explore and treat real-world disorders.
At BAD, we collaborated with a healthcare company to design an app to build empathy between colleagues and customers. Learners see a customer story evolve before rating and reviewing the customer experience. They were asked to consider three aspects: distress, dissatisfaction, and inconvenience. Feedback included a visual summary of what they said, alongside an expert’s rating. This helped learners recognise the consequences of negative interactions and discuss the impact on customers in a ‘safe’ place.
Where are we now?
According to research by Product Experience company Akeneo, nearly half (48%) of British B2B manufacturers will prioritise strategic investment in AR and VR technologies in 2025 to meet demands from Business-to-Business (B2B) buyers.
AR is still very much around, but it hasn't fully taken off as many initially expected. Although it's being developed and used in various sectors, the technology is currently facing challenges like hardware limitations, a lack of killer applications for everyday use, and the need for better integration with existing devices.
Ultimately, it still hasn’t reached mainstream adoption, although it is still being used in specific sectors such as manufacturing and maintenance, where its benefits are clear, particularly for remote assistance and training purposes. The technology is still evolving and is expected to become more widespread as hardware improves and its applications become more widely understood.
So, watch this space…
Here are 10 of the top trends in AR
- AI powers AR technologies. Ikea uses AR room scanning and surface recognition apps – these programs recognise objects in the real world and overlay 3D assets to provide context to the user.
- Mobile AR expands from games to business tools. Mobile devices are still the main platform for AR applications among users. Businesses use mobile AR for products such as remote assistance, training, and product visualisation.
- WebAR helps build more accessible experiences. The differences in mobile AR hardware mean that it can be challenging to create AR experiences that can be used on all devices. WebAR may lack the same powerful functionality of native AR applications, but it makes up for this with its accessibility.
- Cross-platform AR applications continue to evolve. Most AR-capable smartphones are Android devices. As of March 2025, Android has a 70.71% global market share.
- Wearable AR experiences are becoming more common. The Apple Vision Pro is now a year old, but so far, it has only managed to prove itself as a proof of concept. Market tracker IDC reported in July 2024 that Apple had yet to sell 100,000 units of the Vision Pro.
- AR enhances indoor and outdoor navigation. A two-dimensional map isn’t the ideal method of navigating. How to get a bit closer to something we are more comfortable with? Enter AR navigation. Instead of looking down at a 2D map, 3D directions appear on your mobile’s screen or even a head-mounted display.
- AR in marketing. According to Meta, 90% of the brands that used AR advertising techniques saw greater brand awareness following a campaign compared to non-AR focused campaigns. These AR-enhanced campaigns were also 59% cheaper on average.
- AR in healthcare. Head-mounted displays make hands-free interfaces possible. There is a growing demand for AR in the healthcare sector for several applications, including surgical aid, training, therapy, and rehab.
- AR in retail & e-commerce. AR was once a novel, experimental, and unfamiliar technology for retail software development. Now, virtual fitting room applications have become widespread, with brands adopting them into their shopping apps as a feature. Physical stores can also benefit from this technology by installing smart mirrors in showrooms, enabling customers to visualise how different items will look on them without the need for a changing room.
- AR in manufacturing. Manufacturing benefits from augmented reality technologies, with applications such as training, maintenance, quality control, and safety.
