The gist of it: there are a great many opportunities to get in on the ground floor with augmented reality (AR) startups that may develop into larger, more powerful industry forces. The value of enterprise AR can’t be discounted, neither can the fact that the technology has actual productivity benefits.
Glartek, a Portuguese developer of augmented reality (AR) solutions for asset-intensive and manufacturing industries, had some impressive results in 2022, including 3x the previous year’s revenue and a 5x increase in clients. Among its new high-profile clients were Valorsul, EDP, Yazaki Saltano, DS Smith, and Daimler Trucks, joining established partnerships with Microsoft, ATOS, Deloitte, GE Digital, and Ericsson.
Glartek’s Augmented & Connected Worker platform digitizes physical documents, centralizes information, and augments frontline workers’ skills. The company became an official partner of Microsoft to deliver advanced AR experiences on the HoloLens 2, accelerating the deployment of projects combining Digital Twins, AI, and the Augmented & Connected Worker Platform. The platform focuses on mobility and allows users to access information using a broad range of mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones using AR technology.
While Glartek is still a relatively small and niche AR player, it is worth keeping an eye on the company’s development because it is hitting all the right notes as an enterprise play. Commercial AR applications will continue to develop, and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are all technologies that, when vast amounts of data, are able to provide compelling productivity benefits. There are limitations to our traditional mobile device user interfaces and, for the display industry, the true value of enterprise AR in the future is going to be significant, akin to the opportunity in IT products today.
