Accenture, the multinational IT services and consulting firm with a practice dedicated to extended reality (XR) technology, has acquired 60,000 Oculus headsets for training its own new recruits. Julie Sweet, chief executive officer of Accenture, revealed the immersive technology acquisition during an interview with Fortune. She said the 60,000 Oculus headsets were acquired for training new hires, as part of a discussion on maintaining the company’s sizable workforce amid remote working and filling more than 125,000 new roles.
Sweet said: “Why are we doing that [supplying virtual reality (VR) headsets for training new recruits]? Because the way you build connections is also through experiences, and it’s super cool.” “It’s a great way to learn about Accenture in a more engaging fashion but have an experience with people you don’t get to be in a room with going through your new joiner training.” Nick Rosa, Accenture’s XR lead in Europe and its immersive learning lead, took to Twitter to explain that the Oculus headsets being deployed are full six degrees of freedom (6DoF) models, mobile and the latest generation, clearly pointing to Quest 2.
Rosa said this is the largest number of VR headsets any company has ever deployed. Accenture is putting VR into practice in-house and for customers, with Rosa confirming that “this #xratscale end-to-end service is now available to all of our clients”, backed by content developed by its own studio. This studio is responsible for an event planning solution that uses augmented reality and VR to virtually reconstruct a space, accessible across a range of devices, among other projects. Accenture’s heavy investment in headsets follows the news that financial services organization Bank of America is rolling out VR training across nearly 4,300 locations in the US, giving approximately 50,000 employees access to immersive learning and development opportunities.
Author: Mark Dugdale