Microsoft is selling the metaverse now ⁠— and it’s helping make everything from robots to ketchup

You may not be ready to jump into the metaverse for fun, but it could be coming to work sooner than you think.

A fancy way of saying factory floor workers will wear a HoloLens headset to help is what Microsoft announced Tuesday. The headsets will be used to build robots.

The first augmented reality headset to let the wearer experience digital imagery over the real world was launched in 2016 by Microsoft. Stitching together many of Microsoft's technologies like cloud computing helps factory workers and managers build stuff faster and more efficiently.

In Microsoft's industrial metaverse, that means creating a digital twin of a workspace. It speeds up processes like repairs and starts new lines.

Instead of calling a repair person to come to the factory to fix a broken part, they can use a HoloLens to chat with a worker on site and walk them through the repair process in augmented reality. Managers can use the digital twin to spin up new production if needed, something Microsoft pitches as a way to combat supply chain problems.

It isn't just Kawasaki using the technology. Microsoft's industrial metaverse will be used in the factories of Heinz. It has been used by Boeing for manufacturing.

Microsoft's customers have been asking for it as buzz builds around the metaverse concept. Microsoft's corporate vice president of mixed reality, Jessica Hawk, told CNBC in an interview last week that the industrial metaverse is a taste of what technology enables today before we get to a future where the metaverse is fully immersive.

I think you're seeing a lot of energy in that space because of the real-world problems that these companies are dealing with.

Microsoft says a lot about where things stand with the metaverse. While we have been hearing about a future where everyone is working, playing and socializing in virtual reality, the companies developing it today are starting with the enterprise, not the average consumer.

Meta's upcoming mixed reality headset will be more expensive than the $299 virtual reality headset that is marketed to people who want to feel like they're working remotely. One of the first metaverse products was an app that allowed you to hold meetings in virtual reality.

Microsoft has a head start and is selling its mixed reality tech to real companies today while also giving developers the tools they need to make their own metaverse experiences.

The way that we are going about our strategy here is that people are going to experience the metaverse across a variety of devices and platforms.

Metaverse products that work on 2D screens are what Microsoft added to its Teams chat app last year. In the future, those kinds of features can be translated to headsets and other platforms.

The moment in time that isunlocking so much innovation is what we are excited about. We understand some things today. We know many things that we haven't fully realized. It is an exciting time for us.