Business XR, tested against real-world work.
XR for Business is a practical technology interview show centered on immersive tools in training, education, hospitality, media, and business strategy. Alan Smithson speaks with builders and analysts about what XR can do, what blocks adoption, and how companies turn prototypes into usable systems.
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XR for Business is an interview show about virtual, augmented, mixed reality, and the metaverse as business infrastructure. It is not mainly a gadget show. Alan Smithson brings on company builders, platform operators, analysts, educators, and technology reporters to explain where immersive tools are already being used and what still gets in the way. The conversations lean toward practical deployment. Training is a major thread, from Labster's virtual science labs to PixoVR's process, safety, and emergency response software. Bitspace Development brings the same theme into industrial work, where simulated power tools and job-site scenarios can make dangerous training safer. Education appears through XR Bootcamp, with attention to the skills gap inside companies that want their own teams to create VR and AR prototypes. The show also looks beyond classrooms and factories. Hospitality episodes examine front-of-house previews, back-of-house staff training, and augmented reality overlays that preserve hard-won building knowledge for future employees. Market conversations with XR Intelligence and VentureBeat place those use cases inside a wider industry picture of conferences, reports, media coverage, and investment decisions. The show's pacing is upbeat and founder-driven. It favors examples, business models, customer paths, and adoption barriers over abstract hype. There is still plenty of metaverse language, especially in the year-in-review material, but the strongest moments translate that language into websites, commerce links, connected worlds, and social responsibility. Guests talk about resellers, content libraries, internal teams, measurable learning outcomes, and the pressure to compete with games, movies, and social media for attention. That gives the show a useful tension. It is enthusiastic about XR's potential, while repeatedly asking how a company buys it, builds it, trains people on it, and proves that it works. The result is a clear window into business XR during a formative period, with enough specificity to serve product leaders, learning teams, developers, and business owners evaluating immersive technology.
Made for: XR for Business is for business leaders, learning teams, developers, founders, and business buyers evaluating immersive technology. It also suits technology watchers who want market context tied to actual deployments.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by pressing metaverse and XR ideas into operational questions: training outcomes, sales channels, skills gaps, safety, hospitality workflows, and deployment barriers. Its guests are usually people building or reporting on the market, so the optimism stays tied to practical constraints.
Meet the leaders who are changing the face of virtual and augmented reality
A proposed AR overlay beside a hotel boiler gives your metaverse meeting something to argue about.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A year-end XR discussion ties virtual worlds and business use cases to a responsible outlook for 2022 and beyond.
XR for Business closes 2021 by taking stock of how virtual, augmented, and mixed reality have moved through training, marketing, e-commerce, and the wider turn toward the Metaverse.
A grounded look at Labster's push to bring VR science learning into enterprise training.
Labster's shift from virtual science labs into enterprise training gives this episode a clear technology arc. Michael Jensen explains how the company pairs immersive learning with game-like engagement, making the case that VR can make experiments and safety protocols feel more…
A practical look at VR safety training and the reseller model behind getting it into the field.
Workplace VR training gets a grounded entry point here: a basement, a gas meter, and the kind of safety drill that is easier to understand when it feels physical.
A practical argument for training existing teams to build XR demos before asking the business for a bigger commitment.
XR for Business treats a first XR project less as a headset purchase and more as a question of skills, time, and internal capacity. Ferhan Ozkan, co-founder of XR Bootcamp, makes the case for helping existing teams build an early VR or AR demo before turning to an agency budget…
XR moves from hospitality virtual tours to the operational knowledge behind the guest experience.
Hospitality XR is usually sold through the front door, and this episode widens the frame without losing that familiar entry point. Michael Cohen of YouGo Virtual connects virtual tours and 360-degree pre-experiences to the guest-facing side of travel, then follows the same…
Specialists walking through software's tradeoffs, one system at a time.
Founders and engineers on AI coding agents like Claude Code, and supply chain security.
Alan Smithson, Julie Smithson, and Alex Colgan use XR for Business - 2021 in Review to define the Metaverse as a persistent virtual world for commerce, training, and interaction.
Alan Smithson speaks with Labster CEO Michael Jensen about building science and safety training for universities, high schools, and companies using VR, AR, and laptop-based simulations.
Sean Hurwitz says PIXO VR uses “millions of different setups and scenarios” to train gas-meter technicians.
Alan Smithson and Ferhan Ozkan frame XR Bootcamp as a bridge from VR labs at 800 universities to enterprise training for manufacturing, automotive, aviation, and defense.
Michael Cohen of YouGo Virtual says hospitality is a "greenfield opportunity" for XR, with January 2020 rollouts aimed at hotels, convention centers, and events.
Bob Cooney identifies unattended VR as an operational shift, citing LAI Games’ Rabbids attraction and a Beat Saber arcade cabinet that reduce staffing needs.
On XR for Business, Alan Smithson asks VirtualiTeach founder Steve Bambury how schools can adopt VR and AR.
Nestlé’s Richard Hess says an AR demo for Nestlé Professional coffee machines reduced customer visits from three to two.
Host Alan Smithson interviews Daniel Blair about how his company uses VR and AR for serious purposes like industrial training and safety.
Host Alan Smithson interviews Dean Takahashi, lead writer for VentureBeat, about his career in tech journalism and the evolution of XR.
Interview with Catherine Bloxham about the VRX conference and 2019 XR industry report, discussing trends in enterprise XR.
Host Alan Smithson interviews David Syme, founder of Encore Reality, about his work in virtual and augmented reality for business sectors.
An interview with Nokia's head of mobile networks marketing discussing 5G's role in enabling XR technologies.
Host Alan Smithson interviews John Chaney, CEO of SeekXR, about web-based augmented reality for e-commerce brands, discussing partnerships with Lego and Walmart.
Interview with Insta360's marketing director about the company's 360-degree cameras and their impact on XR.
Interview with Michael Mansouri, co-founder of Radiant Images, discussing his work in VR/AR technology and filmmaking.