Meet the African Nonprofit that’s Democratizing Access to XR and AI

Recently, XR Today spoke exclusively to Arome Ibrahim, Program Director of Immersive Tech Africa, a nonprofit bringing XR to the business of Africa. The Immersive Tech Africa team is “championing and supporting the next generation of emerging tech content creators on the African continent,” Ibrahim said.

Founded in 2020, the nonprofit organization is “committed to democratizing access” to XR and AI, Ibrahim stated, via education, training and research, and with a goal to “build a thriving and inclusive tech community on the African continent.”

Ibrahim explained that the Immersive Tech Africa team first started an online webinar group inviting guest speakers to share challenges and experiences, which then “grew into a community, where we now decided to register it as an official nonprofit.”

Helping African Firms Enter the XR Marketplace

Immersive Tech Africa has helped many firms adopt XR to improve business operations. One firm is MTN Nigeria, “the largest telecommunication company on the African continent with close to 70 million plus users,” according to Ibrahim, who stated that the firm launched the MTN Metaverse to engage with high network customers in a virtual department “which is the first enterprise-based metaverse on the African continent and the result of that deployment was simply amazing, we had 10,000 users adopting the experience during launch.”

Moreover, in South Africa, banking firm NET Bank worked with Immersive Tech Africa “to create a virtual engagement platform for their users, they engaged with front-end customers in a virtual environment, and addressed their queries or problems.”

Ibrahim added:

How can these companies not just leverage traditional technology but adapt to what’s going on globally? I’m glad to see that some of these organizations are moving so fast. A couple of them are now moving as fast as having 3D Robotics and maybe leveraging AI to build some of their front-end consumer experiences while still leveraging VR and AR. For example, MTN just recently released a digital experience centre whereby users can just walk in, get a virtual SIM card, engage with products and services, and even also experience their VR platform where needed.

Promoting International Accessible XR

Increasingly, web XR solutions are becoming an accessible avenue for business users to access the XR series. Compared to expensive and, at times, inaccessible VR headsets or AR smart glasses, web XR is a great modern alternative to help onboard many users towards XR services.

Ibrahim explained that the mobile device market is huge for XR via “mobile-based AR experiences and web XR,” Ibrahim highlighted groups like Shift XR, a no-code web XR platform that “supports small businesses to deploy 3D model-related versions of their products or services on the web.”

Ibrahim added:

I’m glad to say that it has been successfully deployed. Swift XR partnered with a company called Taylor to deploy that particular feature on Taylor’s website. Taylor is a furniture brand based in Lagos, Nigeria, and the feedback has been amazing. Users, no matter where they are in Africa, can preview what furniture they want to buy and change the colors in their environment before making that particular purchase.

“Accessibility is very important,” said Ibrahim “even though XR is super amazing, a lot of people still don’t know what it is; a lot of people have never experienced it.”

Ibrahim said:

Everybody has a mobile device, so now we’re pushing for more AR-based experiences and webXR experiences. We don’t limit the barrier of entry for those users. Rather, we’re increasing it. I believe in the coming years, just like how we have cheap and affordable mobile devices, we will have headsets readily available for users across the globe.

“It’s just a matter of time,” remarked Ibrahim, who also stated who the XR device marketplace needs a “huge investment” to help achieve that in the coming years, as well as supporting local developer talent; “we need to have those that can build for XR, not just consume it, but build amazing experiences that can change several industries across the world.”