XR has spent years in “cool demo” territory – nice on a present flooring, a lot more durable to plug into an actual enterprise case.
Lenovo and Arthur imagine that section is over.
At ISE 2026 in Barcelona, Lenovo’s XR stand was “overrun by clients and companions” on simply the second day, based on Oliver Woehler, XR Gross sales Lead EMEA at Lenovo.
Crucially, the conversations weren’t about devices; they centered on use circumstances, financial savings, and pace to worth – learn how to lower journey, enhance unproductive conferences, and make coaching extra scalable.
By combining AI with immersive collaboration, coaching, and digital twins, Lenovo and Arthur are positioning enterprise XR as one thing IT and enterprise leaders can really roll out, help, and measure – not simply an experiment.
From Gadgets to Workflows
Lenovo’s message at ISE 2026 was clear: the period of promoting headsets for their very own sake is over.
“Nobody is shopping for an XR headset solely as a result of it’s an XR headset,” Woehler stated. “It is advisable do one thing faster, sooner, simpler, and cheaper.”
That’s the lens Lenovo is utilizing to border each XR dialog. Moderately than pushing generic “XR functionality”, the corporate is constructing a curated ecosystem of software program companions round particular, repeatable workflows in collaboration, coaching, and digital twins. Arthur is without doubt one of the flagship companions in its “sensible collaboration” atmosphere.
Lenovo’s broader aim is to help the complete content material workflow, no matter machine, so XR can sit naturally alongside present endpoints.
“You possibly can eat the content material on 2D screens, 3D screens, laptops, tablets, and, after all, XR headsets,” Woehler stated.
“That is what Lenovo is doing to assist the shopper on each stage, in each space.”
For IT leaders, that framing issues. XR is handled as one other endpoint within the digital office – built-in, managed, and secured inside the present stack – relatively than as a separate, experimental island.
AI within the Room: Arthur’s Strategy
Arthur has been within the enterprise VR marketplace for round a decade.
The breakthrough within the final two years, based on Arthur Gross sales Affiliate, Laura Keresztyén, is the “match made in heaven” between AI and VR.
AI in Arthur isn’t only a chatbot off to the facet – it seems as an embodied avatar contained in the digital house, in a position to act as a real participant and facilitator.
“This AI mainly is an embodied avatar that may, simply the identical method as we people, work together with the house, be an lively participant, carrying many, many hats,” Keresztyén stated.
In conferences, the AI helps groups resolve what to concentrate on, organise concepts as they emerge, and proactively counsel subsequent steps and actions. For leaders pissed off by conferences that meander and by no means fairly land, that is about self-discipline and follow-through as a lot as it’s about immersion. With groups unfold throughout areas and time zones, that help is aimed toward profiting from exhausting‑received assembly time, not simply “assembly in VR for the sake of it”.
“It’s so exhausting to essentially discover the proper time in your calendar, particularly if it’s 5 individuals or 10 individuals,” she famous.
“You would possibly as effectively use it effectively – and that’s the place the AI helps hold you on the agenda and really comply with by way of on what must get achieved.”
Quick ROI and Immersive Coaching
Each Lenovo and Arthur see coaching as one of many quickest paths to a tangible return on XR, significantly for organisations with excessive coaching volumes, security‑important environments, or distributed workforces.
“We see loads of buyer demand on the coaching facet,” Woehler stated.
“Coaching eventualities are very simple to combine into XR eventualities. With that, you possibly can create a fast return on funding.”
The logic is easy. Many coaching programmes are already costly to ship, troublesome to standardise, and constrained by entry to actual tools or websites. Shifting these eventualities into XR permits organisations to simulate sensible conditions safely, repeat them as typically as wanted, and attain extra individuals with out including extra journey and facility price.
Arthur helps each particular person and multi-user coaching, utilizing AI to personalise and scale the expertise.
“Lastly, we are able to create repeatable, customized studying experiences which are significant for every particular person,” Keresztyén stated.
On the similar time, Arthur preserves the social layer of studying by creating persistent coaching areas the place cohorts can debrief and work together collectively – with AI augmenting, not changing, human trainers. AI is there to reinforce instructors and topic‑matter consultants, not substitute them.
Woehler compares AI’s impression right here to “petrol within the hearth,” dashing up content material creation and situation design, serving to clients attain usable options sooner. For groups that do not need in‑home 3D or recreation‑engine expertise, that acceleration is important to getting past the pilot section.
Digital Twins You Can Stroll Into
Digital twins are central to many digital transformation methods. For a lot of organisations, the problem is making these fashions helpful past a small group of specialists. For Arthur and Lenovo, the subsequent step is making them immersive and interactive, so extra individuals can perceive and act on them.
“Digital twins are usually locations the place you would possibly visualize one thing advanced, which is nice,” Keresztyén stated.
“What Arthur brings is the flexibility to carry individuals inside these twins – to stroll by way of, annotate, and brainstorm inside the dual itself.”
With AI that understands the dual, workers could be guided by way of a digital manufacturing unit, prepare on a precise reproduction of real-world tools, and even ask the AI to dismantle a machine step-by-step in entrance of them. An AI avatar can present the way it works, the way it fails, or learn how to restore it.
From Lenovo’s perspective, that is the “logical evolution” of XR within the enterprise.
“We actually imagine that everybody working in a digital twin atmosphere could have an XR headset sooner or later, like a mouse,” Woehler stated.
“Will probably be in all places. And that is the place Lenovo needs to take a position – to be a part of this workflow.”
For IT and operations leaders, that imaginative and prescient turns XR from a distinct segment machine into one thing that may have to be procured, managed, and supported at scale for particular roles and capabilities.
Begin with Ache Factors, Not Pilots
With AI, XR, and digital twins excessive on the agenda at ISE 2026, many organizations are nonetheless asking the place to start. The constant message from Lenovo and Arthur is to begin with actual ache factors, not with the know-how.
For Arthur, which means working backwards from the enterprise.
“It’s crucial not simply to innovate for innovation’s sake,” Keresztyén stated, “however to begin with the enterprise use circumstances and the ache factors that want options.”
In apply, which may imply focusing first on a selected sort of coaching, a recurring cross‑location assembly, or a clearly outlined digital twin situation. The intention is to construct a small however sensible deployment that exhibits concrete worth in weeks or months, not years.
For Lenovo, that rapidly turns into a dialog about ROI.
“If our clients ask the place they will use this know-how, the reply is often in all places,” Woehler stated.
“However we actually want to take a look at the place it brings an actual profit… the place it helps you get monetary savings.”
Early wins embrace diminished journey by way of immersive collaboration, more practical coaching, and richer digital mock-ups for buyer and advertising communication. All of those could be measured in actual price and time financial savings.
“The know-how is able to scale. It’s not rocket science anymore. It’s there and obtainable,” he concluded.
