Enhancing Virtual Reality Training through Artificial Intelligence: A Case Study

Area of Science:

• Educational Technology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Artificial Intelligence

Background:

• Companies face a skills gap due to rapid technological advancement and high employee turnover.
• Virtual reality (VR) offers training advantages but suffers from lengthy authoring times for virtual environments.
• Integrating AI into VR training can address these limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an architecture for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) assistance into VR training environments.
• To enhance user engagement and decrease authoring effort in VR training.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of AI-assisted VR training.

Main Methods:

• A novel architecture was designed to incorporate AI assistance into VR training.
• A study was conducted comparing VR training with and without an AI digital assistant.
• Usability, perceived workload, and performance satisfaction were measured.

Main Results:

• Usability and perceived workload were comparable between AI-assisted and non-assisted VR training.
• Participants in the AI-assisted VR training condition reported higher performance satisfaction.
• The proposed architecture facilitates AI integration into VR training.

Conclusions:

• AI assistance can improve the effectiveness of VR training programs.
• Integrating AI into VR environments can lead to better user outcomes and reduced development overhead.
• This approach offers a viable solution for corporate up-skilling and re-skilling initiatives.