Is the End of the Metaverse Near Or Is It Getting a Bionic Upgrade?

Meta’s US$77B pivot from virtual reality to AI-powered wearables shows new ways for digital health to be more immersive than ever…

If you grew up in the same era as me, this group of superheroes would be familiar to you… The iconic phrase “It’s Morphin Time” and their wearable devices (Power Morphers in the form of belt buckles) would be the activation key – transforming the ordinary teenagers into the Power Rangers – enhanced superheroes with new capabilities and powerful vehicles shaped like prehistoric beasts and dinosaurs.¹ It may seem like fantasy as a child, but in this digital health era, technology is advancing so fast that it can potentially transform regular people into something more powerful through the two ‘A’s – AI (Artificial Intelligence) and AR (Augmented Reality).

After renaming Facebook to Meta in 2021 with the prediction that the Metaverse will be the future, Mark Zuckerberg is now cutting it’s US $77 billion loss to shift from the metaverse to AI.^{2 3} So is this the end of the Metaverse? Well, I think it’s getting its upgrade…

Go Go Power Rangers… From Virtual Environments to Augmented Reality

The initial bet on virtual reality (VR) headsets and the metaverse did not work as expected. Immersive headsets have not replaced devices such as smartphones and laptops. But the headsets have had better upgrades since its conception.^{4 5 6}

In the meanwhile, gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite have built thriving ecosystems in virtual worlds, which show that the metaverse does have its appeal. In fact, 70% of Fortnite’s players engage with user-generated content beyond the core gaming experience,⁷ and Roblox has more than 31 million users every day!⁸

Here’s the kicker – if you combine metaverse with AI, what do you get? Zuckerberg’s prediction is this: AR glasses!^{9 10} But this is only AR, not the metaverse – you say? Well, AR is in fact one of the four characteristics of the metaverse.¹¹ So it’s not surprising that this is what major players are actually putting out in the market right now.

Many companies have started to develop their AI/AR smart glasses. The most famous one is of course Meta – who have partnered with Essilor Luxottica to come up with its Meta Ray-Ban which sold over 2 million units,¹² and Oakley Meta HSTN sports glasses which has 3K video capture, an 8-hour battery life, water resistance, and of course, the Meta AI itself.^{13 14} But competitors have also sprung up, such as Even Realities and Halliday smart glasses.

More significantly, medical-grade smart glasses have also been developed. Previously in my of my posts on Living in the World of Immersive Healthcare, I provided examples of how extended reality (XR) applications have been used in healthcare. Google Glass and Microsoft HoloLens have been used by various surgical specialties, and for nursing skills training and telehealth applications.¹⁵ But now the AI+AR combi has led to more advanced innovations, such as SnkeXR, which has a built-in surgical tracker with a 0.3mm accuracy and a depth camera that can scan surface anatomies or organs at 30 fps.¹⁶ The Vuzix M400 and M4000 smart glasses have also been used in various healthcare settings.¹⁷

The New Power Morphers… From Virtual Avatars to Digital Humans

We are all familiar with avatars. Avatars are getting to become essential components of virtual and augmented worlds. I was first introduced to the concept of Digital Humans few years back at an international conference. Also known as MetaHumans, they are virtual beings that look, sound and behave like real humans using a variety of AI techniques, including natural language processing, large language models, and even some cognitive services.^{18 19} They are more than simple chatbots, but they bring a face to the AI you are talking to – with natural, engaging conversations and interactions. Various industries like customer service, education, banking and sales, are already using digital humans as a frontend service, but what about healthcare? How can digital humans help? Well, use cases can range from simple translation services and patient wayfinding, to being virtual caregivers and monitoring behavioral health, and even clinician education and wellness coaching!²⁰

AI Immersivity in the Future

McKinsey’s Dr. Pixelpod already demonstrates how AI-powered healthcare avatars can be harnessed in hospital settings.²¹ Aventis Graduate School in Singapore has also developed the Aventis Metaverse campus that offers 24/7 help and support through AI avatar professors.²²

I’m also playing my part in creating my own AI “Power Rangers” for healthcare. My GAVYN project showcases a digital human companion that is designed to provide a safe space for users to share their lived experience and seek empathetic support through mental health and art therapy frameworks.²³ OncoNarratus also explores “hallucination as pedagogy”, leveraging generative AI’s “flaw” as a feature to build empathy in oncology training.²⁴

The birth of AI is not the end of the Metaverse, but the boost it needs to transform it into its full potential. Perhaps in the future, we will see a very different, more powerfully enhanced, version of the Metaverse – one that will truly transform digital health. Get ready – it’s morphin time!

References

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3. Roytburg E. Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook for the metaverse. Four years and $70 billion in losses later, he’s moving on. https://fortune.com/2025/12/05/mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-layoffs-cuts-facebook-rebrand/ ↩︎
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17. Edward S. Vuzix M400 cases studies in the healthcare industry. Expand Reality Blog. 29 Nov 2023. https://blogs.expandreality.io/2-insightful-and-inspiring-vuzix-case-studies ↩︎
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21. QuantumBlack. McKinsey creates a new generation of NVIDIA-powered avatars. McKinsey Blog. 19 Mar 2025. https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/new-at-mckinsey-blog/mckinsey-creates-a-new-generation-of-nvidia-powered-avatars ↩︎
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