While Pokemon Go and putting dog ears on yourself in Snapchat might be the most popular uses of augmented reality (AR) for most people, finding applications for this exciting technology in the workplace are becoming more and more of a reality. 
Employees can imitate experiences from the real world using AR that let them refine their skills as circumstances change in their industry.When AR first came on the scene, it had a high floor for investments and not a ton of applications. The detriment of costly equipment and a considerable power drain had plenty of companies headed in the opposite direction when it came to making an investment in next-generation

Benefits of Workplace AR

As anyone keeping up with educational trends can tell you, more and more people are being identified as visual learners; meaning they do better with understanding new concepts and making new connections from information if they can see the ideas in front of them and have it be a “hands-on” experience as opposed to just reading about things in theory, in a book, or on a non-interactive screen.
Of course most industries don’t come equipped with classrooms or field trips.
If you are selling oil products for a living, you can’t go inside a refinery and see how the different products are distilled by being heated to various temperatures - it’s unsafe and takes place in the middle of an industrial complex.
But using AR and 3D models, a new salesperson can see exactly how the different products are separated out and compare them again and again to get familiar with them.
 AR is a great advantage to people who operate complex machinery like airplanes as well. A pilot or a mechanic can practice the same routine over and over again without having to use an actual aircraft, burning fuel and flight time. 

This sort of built-in repetition allows employees more leeway to practice something until they get it right without feeling like they are wasting resources or are being scrutinized when they practice something repeatedly in a real-world environment.
This also reduces the time between practice runs, as equipment does not have to be reset, refueled, or serviced between training sessions. Workers don’t even have to be in the physical office space to do the training, as most AR is flexible for multiple devices.
Most smartphones - Apple and Google built - are compatible with AR training applications. 
This drops costs overall because you’re not having to play to use actual equipment or repeatedly call in trainers or experts in the field to coach your employees over and over again.
Wearable AR is on the rise - in the form of goggles or special glasses that form an overlay for the employee’s field of vision.
This allows workers the opportunity to be hands free and perform complex procedures or tasks without having to hold any sort of manipulation tool.