While a new forecast found that the global extended reality (XR) market in healthcare alone could grow from $7.8 billion USD in 2024 to $67.7 billion USD by 2033, Israeli startup Wearable Devices announced Mudra Experience Studio, a comprehensive developer platform that transforms neural input into a universal gesture language for XR, mobile, and AI-powered apps.
Simultaneously, on February 17, 2026, Android XR leaked screenshots suggested the launch of a minimalist, AI-integrated system that could potentially redefine next-generation augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) as we have known them.
The transformation is already underway. Within the next few years, we will no longer need to look down at our phones to access information. Instead, data, screens, and digital tools could appear directly in the physical world, seamlessly integrating into our surroundings.
XR and spatial computing are not just changing devices, but also reshaping how users interact with information itself. Technologies like VR and AR are already being used in higher education in the U.S., where XR tools support immersive classroom learning and clinical simulations. And, in Europe, where mixed reality headsets help teach anatomy and procedural skills in hospital settings, these technologies demonstrate that what still seems futuristic to many is already becoming a standard practice.
The wider XR industry is expected to move beyond its experimental stage in 2026, accelerating large-scale adoption with market projections pointing to a value of over $420 billion USD by the end of the decade, according to a KBV Research Spatial Computing Market report.
This surge of corporate investment is not a coincidence; the technologies have already demonstrated real returns on investment.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, are strategically betting on the same technological future: smartphones will no longer be the center of our digital lives.
While Zuckerberg has predicted that smart glasses will gradually push smartphones into a secondary role by 2030, Cook argues that this evolution will not be merely a new device, but the “technology of tomorrow” – the beginning of a phase as important as the Mac or the iPhone.
Information occupies the physical space
The technology sector is abandoning the concept of the “metaverse” – a term coined by Zuckerberg – to focus on something much more concrete and functional: spatial computing. These systems are capable of understanding physical spaces, recognizing the geometry of a room and placing digital objects within it.
Before this XR revolution, however, came virtual reality (VR), which immerses users into fully-digital environments, traditionally adopted for high-risk simulations and immersive video games.
Then came augmented reality (AR), which overlays digital information onto the real world – such as when an app displays GPS directions on the street. And finally came MR, the current major technological advancement.
Here, digital objects both appear before us and interact physically with the environment; a virtual character can sit on the sofa, or a work screen can be anchored firmly to a kitchen wall, for instance.
User isolation is thus becoming obsolete. The generation of hardware launched from 2024 onwards uses high fidelity cameras to merge the digital with the physical, allowing users to work, interact, and create without disconnecting from the real world.
Technology is thus no longer a distraction limited to a flat screen, but has become a tool integrated into our everyday physical realities.
Yet, a transition is far from guaranteed. The history of technology is filled with promising interfaces that failed not because they did not work, but because they never found an organic function in users’ everyday lives.
Measurable impact on productivity
Companies such as Samsung, Meta, and Apple are investing heavily to compete for leadership in the next technological era, while the industrial sector is adopting these tools to reduce costs.
An injection of capital is already evident on the day-to-day operations of factories. The May 2024 alliance between Siemens and Nvidia, for example, has enabled large companies to create digital twins – virtual replicas of factories, machines, or systems that behave like their real-life counterparts.
Such advancement has allowed engineers to test and adjust entire production lines before physically building them, with companies like PepsiCo achieving improvements close to 20% and reductions in investment costs of between 10% and 15% following the application of these optimization strategies.
By identifying bottlenecks and design errors directly from a simulation, where they can be corrected at virtually no cost, rather than when they emerge physically, companies could have a significant competitive advantage reflected in reduced operational costs and a proactive approach to problem-solving.
Office work has also been optimized via infinite canvas, in which employees can display as many virtual screens as they need through XR devices, without the constraints of a traditional desk.
Meanwhile, devices like the Apple Vision Pro spatial computing headset are transforming the entertainment and gaming industries one user at a time, allowing for the projection of immersive digital environments directly onto the user’s physical space.
As Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has noted, technology lies not in the device itself, but in its ability to translate the integration of the digital and the physical worlds into concrete results. More than a change in format, then, these technologies pose a new way of organizing work, and making decisions with greater foresight and precision.
Education and health
Beyond everyday use cases, XR and spatial computing are also reshaping how information is processed by the human brain. Research from MIT’s Picower Institute suggests that human cognition relies heavily on spatial organization to structure thought and guide attention; by presenting information in 3D, these technologies align more closely with the brain’s natural mechanisms for organizing and updating information, enabling forms of understanding that are difficult to achieve through traditional representations.
Recent academic research on skill training programs shows that immersive technologies such as virtual reality can significantly enhance learning outcomes compared to traditional instructional methods.
Studies analyzing VR-based training environments report measurable improvements in post-test performance, skill acquisition, and learner engagement – particularly in contexts where hands-on practice and spatial understanding are critical. These findings help explain why virtual and spatial computing tools are increasingly being adopted across education, healthcare, and professional training as more effective alternatives to conventional learning approaches.
Latin America is also taking part in this transition. In Mexico, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) operates “Miztli“, one of the most powerful supercomputers in the region, used for creating large-scale simulations in medicine, engineering, and data science. This computing power is helping improve spatial modeling, digital twins development, and AI XR systems.
Meanwhile, in Colombia, initiatives such as the Medical XR Plus virtual reality platform are being used to train medical students and surgeons through 3D simulated procedures and preoperative planning, whereas the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service at Chile’s Hospital de La Serena has incorporated immersive VR exercises into patient rehabilitation programs to enhance motor recovery and balance.
Although investment in XR across Latin America is still lower than in North American or Asian markets, there is clear interest in bringing these technologies into the region, not only by adopting foreign solutions but also by developing local expertise.
What can we expect?
Today’s bulky headsets represent only a transitional phase; the industry’s ultimate goal is to make these devices “invisible.”
By 2028, the market is expected to implement lightweight and small glasses designed for everyday use, a trend that is already proving successful in prototypes such as Meta’s Orion – capable of integrating holographic projectors and batteries into a 100-gram frame.
Future Apple devices are moving in the same direction, seeking to combine XR and AI in formats as regular as conventional glasses.
Meanwhile, technology startups like Dubai-based XPANCEO have already shown functional prototypes of smart contact lenses that project augmented reality directly onto the retina, allowing users to see information directly in their field of vision and monitor their health in real time.
The focus, then, is no longer making devices more eye-catching, but rather reducing their physical presence in everyday use – as they seamlessly extend their physical reach.
And, the question is no longer just how far these technologies can go, but how they will be integrated organically by users without becoming another source of distraction.
Today, cell phones force us to look down and isolate ourselves behind a screen, while MR aims for something simpler: consulting information without looking away, working without disconnecting, and presence in conversations.
The impact will not be an immediate replacement of cellphones, but a gradual displacement. If this balance is achieved, the shift will also not be abrupt; instead, it will subtly reshape everyday technology use – changing how we work, learn and interact with digital tools without necessarily disconnecting from our surroundings.
If XR succeeds in this new multi-plane digital era, it will not be by replacing existing devices, but by allowing information to exist without constantly demanding our full attention.
