In partnership with
2026 is the year XR stops trying to impress and starts being judged.
For the first time, immersive tech is no longer fighting for attention inside innovation labs but for survival inside real budgets. The conversation has shifted from what is possible to what replaces existing systems and actually saves money. This is where many XR projects will quietly die and a few will finally scale. In this episode, we break down the three breakthroughs that decide which teams move from pilots to production and which never make it out of testing.
If you build, sell, or deploy XR, this is the map you need before 2026 makes the decision for you.
How much could AI save your support team?
Peak season is here. Most retail and ecommerce teams face the same problem: volume spikes, but headcount doesn't.
Instead of hiring temporary staff or burning out your team, there’s a smarter move. Let AI handle the predictable stuff, like answering FAQs, routing tickets, and processing returns, so your people focus on what they do best: building loyalty.
Gladly’s ROI calculator shows exactly what this looks like for your business: how many tickets AI could resolve, how much that costs, and what that means for your bottom line. Real numbers. Your data.
Breakthrough 1 - XR becomes an operational system, not a project.
In 2026, XR stops being owned by innovation teams and starts being owned by operations.
Did you know?
The global XR industry is now converging VR and AR into a single class of devices that can switch between immersive virtual worlds and high-resolution augmented overlays—a shift that’s making standalone spatial computing hardware affordable and relevant for enterprise use, not just gaming or demos. (learn more.)
This matters because innovation teams can afford failure and operations cannot. Once XR sits under training, safety, or production, it is measured weekly, not annually. The technology is no longer judged by immersion but by uptime, repeatability, and integration. XR that cannot plug into existing LMS, MES, or safety workflows breaks immediately.
What survives is XR that behaves like software, not like a showcase.
What actually changes on the ground
XR is procured through operations and compliance, not R&D
Content is standardized, versioned, and reused
Headsets are treated like laptops, not prototypes
Rollouts are justified by headcount reduction or throughput gains
Tool of the Week: Unity Sentis
Unity Sentis turns XR apps into decision-making systems, not just visual layers.
Unity Sentis allows developers to run neural networks directly inside Unity projects, on device, in real time. That means XR applications can now classify, predict, and adapt without relying on cloud round trips. For enterprise XR, this is a quiet but massive shift because intelligence moves into the headset, not behind an API. XR stops being reactive and starts becoming contextual.
Why this matters
On-device AI inference without cloud latency
Works with existing Unity XR projects
Enables adaptive training, guidance, and quality checks
Critical for offline, factory, and safety environments
This is one of the missing pieces for XR to behave like an operational tool instead of a scripted experience.
Breakthrough 2—Mixed Reality is successful because it aligns with the way work actually happens.
Pure VR failed not because it was weak, but because it ignored reality.
Most industrial and enterprise work happens in dynamic, shared, safety-critical spaces. Removing users from that environment created friction, risk, and resistance. Mixed Reality keeps spatial context while adding guidance, simulation, and overlays. This allows XR to support real tasks instead of isolated training moments.
Adoption increases because XR stops interrupting work and starts augmenting it.
Why enterprises now demand MR by default
Workers remain aware of people, machines, and hazards
Training happens on the real equipment, not a virtual copy
One device supports onboarding, assistance, and planning
XR sessions shift from scheduled events to on-demand use
The most insane XR NEWS
(from last week)
Asus and Xreal unveil 240 Hz AR glasses at CES 2026
At CES 2026, Asus ROG Xreal R1 AR gaming glasses were announced with a high-refresh micro-OLED display and PC/console compatibility—a major step toward high-performance AR wearables beyond mobile peripherals. (learn more.)Sandbox VR expands to Houston
Sandbox Virtual Reality is opening a new location in Houston on January 23, 2026, offering immersive, full-body VR experiences as part of its growing entertainment footprint backed by major investors. (learn more)New AR HMD tech debuts at CES 2026
PetaRay and Quanta announced a commercial AR headset at CES with arbitrary focal depth optics, tackling eye strain by aligning virtual imagery with real distances—a big hardware usability improvement. (learn more.)Xreal 1S AR glasses praised for virtual display experience
The Xreal 1S glasses were highlighted for offering a large, crisp virtual screen for entertainment and productivity use, showing broader appeal of lightweight display wearables. (learn more.)TechRadar year-in-review emphasizes Android XR competition
In its 2025 roundup, TechRadar noted that Android XR devices are challenging Meta and Apple Vision Pro, signaling a diversifying XR hardware market going into 2026. (learn more.)
Breakthrough 3-XR is filtered by economics, not excitement
By 2026, XR is no longer compared to other XR solutions.
It is compared to videos, manuals, shadowing, and doing nothing. This is a brutal comparison that most projects do not survive. Only deployments that compress time, reduce errors, or eliminate travel make sense. Everything else becomes an unjustifiable luxury.
The upside is that what survives scales fast and defensibly.
The ROI logic that now decides survival
How many hours of training are removed
How many mistakes never happen
How quickly new staff become productive
How many physical resources are no longer required
If you want to explore how this applies to your team, book a strategy call and we’ll walk you through what’s possible.
That’s a wrap!!
Talk soon!
Bruno Filkin
Founder, Mastermind VR
VR Strategy Consultation
Ready to explore VR training for your team?
Take the Next Step
Let us review your project and discuss possible development and production details.
👇🏼
