How To Evaluate The Business Value Of Immersive Experiences

gettyVirtual and immersive technologies can give businesses new ways to engage customers, train employees and deliver digital services. But creating a compelling experience doesn’t automatically make it a viable product, and the investment required can make experimentation costly if a company hasn’t first established a clear business case.

Before committing significant time and resources, businesses need to determine whether immersion adds enough value to justify both building and potentially monetizing an experience. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council discuss the questions companies can ask to distinguish a promising opportunity from an idea that may be better left on the drawing board.

Economics should be the deciding factor. If a virtual experience only changes how something looks, it’s a demo. If it changes what someone does—completing purchases faster, returning products less frequently, training in a safer environment—it’s a product. Ask, “Does this eliminate a real-world cost customers already pay, like travel, risk or returns?” If you can’t name that cost line, don’t build it. “Wow” fades; lowered costs compound. - Rahul Wankhede, Humana

Ask whether an immersive experience materially changes the outcome. If the experience helps customers understand, decide, learn or accomplish something meaningfully better than they can with a simpler digital experience, there may be value worth monetizing. If immersion only makes the experience more impressive, it is probably a feature looking for a business case. - Vibhor Kumar, EDB

Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?

One way is to test for network density. Ask how many relevant users must be present at the same time for the immersive experience to create real value. Collaboration, marketplaces and social spaces can fail—even when individual interest is strong—if participants rarely overlap. If the business cannot reliably assemble the critical mass needed for meaningful interaction, the problem may be network density, not product quality or monetization. - Salice Thomas, Wipro Limited

Look for behavior, not novelty. If users voluntarily return, spend meaningful time and complete something more effectively than they could through a simpler interface, monetization may succeed. If immersion adds spectacle but not utility, convenience or connection, it is probably not worth building. - Dhyey Mavani, Amherst College

One strong signal is whether the experience creates value that a traditional digital channel cannot. If immersion improves learning, decision making, collaboration or customer confidence enough that users return or pay for it, monetization may make sense. If it merely re-creates a website or app in 3D, the technology is adding novelty, not value. - Venkata Kondepati, Ascentt

Ask what data the experience has to capture to function and how long that data stays sensitive. Immersive products run on biometric telemetry—eye movement, gait, spatial behavior. Nobody reissues a retina. If your revenue horizon is three years and the data creates a 20-year liability, you have your answer before you build anything. - J Nathaniel Ader, Qtonic Quantum Corp.

Ask, “Does the experience solve a problem people already pay to solve, or does it just showcase the technology?” If users wouldn’t miss it after a week, it’s a novelty, not a business. From a security angle, also weigh the data and access it demands. Immersive experiences often collect biometric, spatial or behavioral data far beyond that collected by a normal app; that liability alone can outweigh any monetization upside if it’s not core to the value. - Kumar Ritesh, CYFIRMA

Model the content treadmill before the launch. Some immersive experiences feel valuable only while new rooms, objects, events and moderators keep arriving; revenue may grow linearly while production cost compounds. Run a pilot with a deliberate content freeze and watch whether users still create value for one another. If engagement collapses without constant novelty, the business is funding a theme park, not a scalable product. Value must outlast every content drop. - Jagadish Gokavarapu, Wissen Infotech

Ask what the third session looks like. Immersive pilots get judged on first-session “wow,” which measures novelty, not value. The honest test is repeat use with the headset off the roadmap: Does the task still need spatial presence? Virtual showrooms mostly fail this test. Surgical and industrial training passes, because the skill is spatial and the alternative is unavailable. Build where session two is longer than session one. Don’t assume. - Dr. Chiranjiv Roy, C5i.ai

Validate the problem before investing in immersion. If the need exists only because users have a headset, you have created a novelty, not a market. Test the same task in a 2D or in-person format first. If people still prefer the immersive experience when they have a genuine choice, you may have durable demand worth monetizing. - Harsh Jangid, Coozmoo Digital Solutions

A simple test is to measure the friction required to access the experience. In an increasingly virtual world, requiring users to bring headsets, physical tools or additional equipment can create fatigue before the experience even begins. If the added logistics outweigh the value of immersion, it may not be worth building or monetizing. - Subasini Periyakaruppan, Cadmus Group

The question isn’t really, “Will this immersive experience eventually pay for itself?” What we should be asking is, “Is this the smartest bet we can make today?” It helps to look at technology through the lens of an investment portfolio. An immersive feature could absolutely have a positive ROI and still be the wrong thing to focus on right now. - Kostiantyn Gitko, Devox Software

Ask what it costs to walk away, not just whether users return. Immersive builds carry heavy sunk cost in terms of hardware, content and teams, so the honest question before you start is how cheaply you can kill it if the demand is not there. If the only way to justify the spend is to keep spending, you are trapped before launch. Fund experiments you can stop, not builds you cannot unwind. - Anna Drobakha, Groupe SEB

Treat immersion as a substitute, not an add-on. If it can reliably replace an expensive physical step—travel, prototyping, site access, rehearsal or equipment downtime—it has economic value. If the real-world step still has to happen anyway, the virtual layer is probably cost dressed as innovation. - Akhilesh Sharma, A3Logics Inc.