Ian Hughes is a senior research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence and has been covering the evolution of industrial IoT from the basics of instrumentation to richer data applications such as predictive maintenance and machine learning at the edge. This coverage is now moving toward digital twins and the real-time industrial metaverse. He looks at changes to the way we interact with technology, and one another, through AI, IoT, game technology and media across what will become the metaverse at work and play. He has over 34 years of experience in emerging technology, the first 20 years as a software engineer and architect building and sharing concepts, from early web and e-commerce, IoT, social media to virtual worlds. He became an enterprise metaverse evangelist in 2006, known for putting the Wimbledon Championship tennis experience into a shared avatar-based experience. Later, with his own consulting company, he built virtual training hospitals and educational experiences. Ian had his own slot on a Saturday morning TV show for 39 episodes in 2010/11, showing emerging technology to a younger audience. He has written and published two science fiction novels under his online name/nom de plume, epredator. Ian has a Bachelor of Science degree in IT from De Montfort University. He was made an Honorary Doctor of Technology by Solent University in 2018, and he is chair of BCS animation and games specialist group.
Osaka World Expo 2025 opens alongside its virtual world version, EU looks at web 4.0 metaverse governance, Napster returns, OpenUSD grows, Meta adds GenAI for 3D and Roblox hits $1 billion revenue for the quarter.
Use of robots is growing, especially in remote areas. The company has more than half of all oil & gas robots running its AI Robot Brain to inspect facilities. With robots and drones able to be mobile sensor nests, the company uses them to see, hear and sense plant installations in routine patrols.
The $15.5 billion digital media, e-commerce, metaverse and e-sports company is rebranding to Napster Corporation and forming a Napster AI division. Its entire portfolio will transition to reflect Napster branding.
In 2021, we looked at the evolution of IT/OT and industrial internet of things applications for the previous five years. Now in 2025, we can see nearly a decade of adoption rates and change. AI and industrial metaverse concepts are at the forefront but still leave a spread of adoption and maturity.
In its biggest deal yet, Infinite Reality, an ever-growing digital media metaverse company, is adding Touchcast and its Mentorverse conversational AI agents to its portfolio, taking iR's valuation to $15 billion. This deal looks to put iR in the vanguard of new forms of user experience.
The evolution of industrial IoT instrumentation and control is providing a path toward a more spatial future. Data Time Space looks to provide a platform to capture, collate and present all the data from a space into Microsoft Teams for a shared XR collaborative environment.
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