US financial services giant Fidelity Investments is dabbling in virtual reality, exploring how the technology could help firms visualise employee savings and build retirement plans.
The firm's R&D arm, Fidelity Labs, has developed a proof-of-concept that uses a cityscape to show a company exec how its employees are faring in the savings game in relation to other firms in its sector.
The technology then lets a headset wearer drill down into their own company's data, seeing how employees have allocated their assets by different criteria, such as age.
Fidelity argues that the PoC is not just a gimmick because VR helps people understand abstract concepts such as large data sets in an intuitive way.
"It just might help them improve their retirement savings plan, help their employees make better investing decisions, and transform how people see and manage their money," says Sean Belka, SVP, director, Fidelity Labs.
The work builds on a 2014 VR effort, called StockCity, a 3D environment of buildings that represent stocks.