How XR Innovation Powers Enterprise Transformation

In this episode, AR for Enterprise Alliance executive director Mark Sage chats with with Shelley Peterson, Founder & CEO of Wizard Wells. Shelley shares hard-won insights from her time driving immersive technology adoption at Lockheed Martin and now advising startups and enterprises on XR strategy. She breaks down what it really takes to scale XR solutions—from overcoming skepticism and aligning with mission-critical outcomes to fostering cross-functional collaboration and technical readiness.  Shelley offers a roadmap for companies ready to move beyond pilots and into production-grade XR, while calling out key challenges, cultural shifts, and the power of storytelling in change management. Please visit the AREA.

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Hello, I'm Karen Quatromoni,
Director of Public Relations forObject Management Group, OMG,
and welcome to our OMGPodcast series. At OMG,
we're known for driving industrystandards and building tech communities.
Today we're focusing on the AugmentedReality for Enterprise Alliance,
AREA,
the only global nonprofit member-basedorganization dedicated to the

(00:32):
widespread adoption of interoperableAR enabled enterprise systems.
Today, the AREA's Executive EirectorMark Sage will lead the podcast.
Mark?
Thanks Karen for thatintroduction. And hi everybody.
I'm very lucky today to actuallybe speaking with, in fact,
this lady probably doesn't need much ofan introduction if you've been involved

(00:56):
in the XR industry for any length of time,
one of the people that's shown us how
to deliver deploy XR solutions,
but also talk about the ROI andhas done some amazing kind of
work
and continues to be a kind oftrailblazer in the XR industry. So shell,

(01:20):
Shelley Peterson, thank you very muchfor joining us on the Area podcast today.
Well, thank you so much for having me.This is fantastic to join you today.
Wonderful. Well, let's just getgoing and just can you just talk,
introduce yourself and a little bit aboutwhat you've done and what you're doing
now?
Yes. I'm Shelley Peterson.
I've started a companycalled Wizard Wells.

(01:43):
I'm the Founder and CEO.
I'm helping companies through consultingand some other pathways within the XR
industry. Now mybackground started working,
I can map to augmentedreality efforts in the late
1900s.
It's kind of fun to say it that way!

(02:07):
1997 I was,
or actually 93, I was
writing papers in highschool for my physics class related to augmented reality.
But we fast forward
around 2011,
I started working with augmented realityand building spacecraft at Lockheed

(02:29):
and then I worked at Microsoft for alittle while. So it's been a fun path.
Indeed. Yes. No, thank you Shelley.
I'm really excited to have with you.
Sorry you join in the area as well.
Can you tell us a little bit about whyyou joined the area and what you hope to
achieve by becoming a member?

(02:50):
Well,
when I was supporting andleading the teams building
spacecraft with augmented reality,
and that was back in what I considerto be some of the early days
of XR and there were challengesthat we had to figure out
in order to be able to use thetechnology on a manufacturing floor

(03:13):
for spacecraft,
everything from securityto IT to the culture
and many other areas.
And what I found at that time was thatthe area was looking into those same
topics.
They were working hard to solvethe same challenges and so

(03:34):
it was very helpful to us
and gave us additional resources sothat we weren't having to figure that
out alone.
And I've been a fan since thattimeframe to see the work that
the area is doing. And Ithink it's instrumental.
It helps companies, especiallycompanies who are in the early stages,

(03:58):
figure out what they need to cover andwhat they need to think of and how to
solve the challenges so thatthere's a lower barrier to entry.
They can solve the challengesmuch more efficiently
at the start and along the way.
What are you focusing on at themoment in terms of the XR ecosystem?

(04:21):
What's been top of your agenda?
So
many companies are trying to figure outthese types of challenges and I go in
and help break things down where we can
move forward more efficiently andeffectively with greater return on

(04:41):
investment.
Same thing that I've done forlarge companies along the way,
it can apply to companies of any size.
In some cases we see that there's justlittle minor modifications that can be
made to make things runmuch more efficiently.

(05:01):
In other cases, we're lookingat how to future proof.
That's a very importantaspect these days. We see how
hardware companies are a perfect examplewhere they surface and we assume that
they may be there for a long time,
but they're more dynamic than what werealize. And it's not just recently,

(05:22):
it's always been that way.
We used products like the HoloLens
with spacecraft manufacturing,
but we had to pivot two or threetimes before we got to that point.
So this is not a new element and it'ssomething that we have quite a bit of
experience dealing with whereyou have to think ahead and go,
how do you architect

(05:47):
solutions and a way to operatethat allows you to maneuver
in a more agnostic fashion?
Yeah, it's very much a bigquestion at the moment, isn't it,
around the hardware side,
but maybe you can reflect on some ofthe other challenges that companies face
within the enterprise AR when they'retrying to implement the technology.

(06:09):
So many companies
will go down a path to run aproof of concept and the proof of
concept shows great promise,
but then getting it intoa actual environment with
capabilities that are either scalableor scalable internally to their company
can be a challenge becausethe scalable version or

(06:34):
the operational version is quite differentfrom the proof of concept version.
And so they may get stuck inwhat we call pilot purgatory
where they have a solutionthat they know will work,
but they have difficulty getting it intothe actual environments and settings.
In some cases,
if we design that proof of concept alittle bit differently so that it moves

(06:56):
more efficiently into that actualsetting, it can be helpful.
I'm a fan of bringing it andsecurity in when it's appropriate.
If they're going to need to be involved,
I like to have them broughtin on day one if possible or
something very,

(07:16):
very close to it.If organizations have gotten started
without pulling those groups in,
we like to help them get thosegroups in as soon as possible.
And that can make a hugedifference. I consider to be
superheroes that go unrecognized,

(07:40):
they can break things looseand really enable teams
if we have them on board.
And I've seen cases where it wastoo busy and it wasn't part of their
effort to work the XR solutions.
And there's ways that we canwork with them to bring them in.

(08:01):
In some cases it's as simple asa couple of conversations and
they're brought in.
There's some strategic thingsthat can be done to help structure
so that the right teams are on board.
And I couldn't agree more, Shelly.
I think one of the things thatwe're working on within the area,

(08:21):
and I know you're aware of this, issince the Microsoft are no longer
delivering or building the HoloLens, mostof the focus has now been on Android,
and that actually becomes quite achallenge for enterprises to deploy
that kind of platform as well.
So is that something you're beginning tothink about and look at in terms of the

(08:44):
different wearables and howenterprises can support them?
Yes, and the solutions.
Android is a challenge fromthe security aspect for some
companies.
And what many organizations aredoing now is they're looking
at

(09:05):
browser-based capabilitiesthat allow you to
access just like you would normally,
the VR scenarios, mixed realityscenarios, augmented reality.
But if you have a device with a browser,
whether it's a laptop or whatevertype of device you prefer,

(09:28):
you can access these browser basedapplications and there's interesting
security features thatcome along with that.
It can be intranet. There's
some impressive capabilities there that
solve some of the ITand security concerns.

(09:50):
It also allows us to look at a more futureproof architecture where if a device
goes away,
you're not completely redevelopingthat content for a different
device, you can moveforward pretty seamlessly.
That's great. And thank you Shelley.You've covered quite a few areas there,
but are there any other finalinsights that you and your

(10:15):
company can bring that would help others
drive enterprise AR adoption?
If we look from even a higher level
above XR solutions,
what many companies are tryingto solve right now is how to do
more with fewer workers.

(10:36):
Workforce development isa very important topic,
not only for companies butfor government organizations,
state and federal in theUS and other countries.
And what we see is thatbecause there's a shortage of
workers, they're wanting toramp people up more quickly.
They're wanting to bring in people whomay not have been considered for that

(11:00):
type of job positionand train them into that
position. We see that
they're wanting to work more efficiently
and this technology is perfect for that.
We also see the surge of ai,

(11:20):
but really what companies arelooking for with AI and XR
is efficiencies and how toform a job more effectively.
And so when we think of it in those terms,
it allows us to identify the areaswhere it really brings value and we can
measure that value,

(11:41):
which allows it to grow onthe path that it should.
I'm a fan of using the technologyfor those types of purposes.
I always have been.
So I think there's greatopportunity for companies
with XR if they're focused on

(12:04):
how to do more with fewer people,
how to ramp people up moreeffectively and efficiently,
how to use it across their environments
in ways where they can measure that value.
So finally, Shelley, justone last question. Obviously,

(12:25):
aside from joining the area,
what advice would you or can you offerto companies who are starting their
enterprise XR journey?
What I love about the XRindustry is that it's a
very friendly environment.
There's lots of peoplein this space who are

(12:46):
very willing to helpand provide insight and
lessons learned and help getcompanies on the right path quickly.
And I would encourage companieswho are in the early stages to
participate in programs like the area
and

(13:07):
reach out to the groups thereand get their thoughts and
insights.
It really helps to get started moreeffectively and more efficiently at the
early stages. And I think thatwithin this industry space,
there's people who are I
very approachable and veryfriendly and wanting to help.

(13:29):
Including yourself, Shelley.
So thank you for your help andsupport and your knowledge as well.
And finally, thank you for your insights.It's always great to speak to you.
You've done a huge amount for the industryand kind of helped a lot of people.
So thank you for your continuedhelp and support not only to the

(13:49):
area, but to the wider XR communityand ecosystem. So thank you.
Well, thank you for that. And thankyou for all that the area is doing.
It really is impactful and I'mjust such a fan of what you.