On a rainy afternoon in Lakewood Colorado, I stepped into a nondescript building through two bar doors to experience the latest in virtual reality (VR) technology. I had learned about Head Games VR from Jeff Kauffman, group president of FirstBank, the second-largest bank in Colorado. I had been sharing my thoughts with Jeff on the future of banking and how I believe VR will play an important part in providing financial services in the years to come. Jeff oversees a large IT department with 300 technical professionals working on systems for FirstBank; he is always looking for new and progressive ideas, so I was most curious when he said there was a new VR business that had opened down the street from the bank’s operations center. I was in Colorado as a part of the Graduate School of Banking faculty at the University of Colorado, and after my classes ended, I headed over to Head Games VR to check it out.
This facility is very new and it is not decked out in the most aesthetic way, but the key is in the technology, not the decorations. Head Games VR has all the tools to make an amazing VR experience. Once I was inside, Adam greeted me and walked me through the options: There are 20 VR games available, and many of them are oriented to be multi-player. After looking at those optimal for a single player, I chose to experience “the Lab.” This was an excellent choice as the Lab allowed me to get the hang of the VR controls, including learning how to “teleport” myself from place to place. Once you put the headset on, you are in the 360-degree, full-immersion reality world. When you see a piece of equipment 20 feet away, your inclination is to walk over to it, which, of course, you can’t do since you are standing in a 10-foot square space. Instead, you have to point with the controller and “teleport” yourself to that area. Once I got this principle down, I was much more effective at playing the game.
It also helped that instead of just giving me a headset and leaving me to figure it out, Adam was close by, watching on a monitor so he could see what I was experiencing and give me pointers. During my time in the Lab, I used a huge slingshot to shoot at targets in the warehouse and also attempted to repair a robot, which was hilarious since it was clear there was no way to actually fix the robot, though it did give me practice grabbing and moving elements. I also played a cool game similar to Galaga that tested both my ability to aim at targets as well as move in the VR world to avoid getting blown up. Finally, I entered a miniature world and shot virtual arrows at marauders attempting to storm the castle. All in all, I was very pleased with the ability to adapt to the controls. Given the quality of the technology and the richness of the experience, there is no question that VR experiences such as Head Games VR will become more popular.
How will VR affect your business? VR headsets are already being used in industrial and technical business applications. Experts who follow VR are suggesting that VR headsets and their cousins, augmented and mixed realities, will dominate gift-giving during the 2018 Christmas season. My prediction is that financial services will be transformed by using VR to perform basic banking activities. For example, suppose financial institutions enable customers to do basic bill pay and budgeting through VR. Check out this animation of a millennial using VR to convert his paycheck into a pizza to budget and “pay” his bills, represented by avatars all wanting their slice of the pie. Crazy? Maybe. The technology to achieve this exists today, but many financial institutions are stuck in traditional thinking.
If you are a banker reading this, or any business person who wants to challenge the status quo of your industry, I encourage you to explore VR as a potential game changer for your future customers. Immerse yourself in the VR world, even if it is a single-person shooter game, or see if you can fix the robot in the Lab. Either way, you will see why VR has the potential to revolutionize how you deliver future services.