What will AR look like in 2021? How will leading revenue categories like AR advertising take shape? Contextualizing AR’s future requires looking at its recent past. So we’ve decided to do just that. Here’s our take on where AR has been in the past year….and where it’s going in the next.
From wearables to AR advertising, consumers got a deeper look into what a world with AR would look like in 2020. Thanks to greater platform support, better authoring tools, and increased device capabilities, AR moved further into the mainstream. In tandem, the pandemic and the concurrent shift to digital made brands better understand that the best way to deliver a new level of customer experience and engagement is through AR. This meant that the general public were really able to experience the technology on a more personal level and understand its benefits beyond an entertainment factor, particularly in the eCommerce space where physical retail came to a screeching halt and forced many to begin the process of AR. Likewise, many in the education industry turned to AR to aid remote learning. Awareness was also driven by major platforms like Instagram, who added features that put users in control of creating AR experiences.