Mixed Reality–the marriage of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) offers a slew of benefits for businesses including employee education and training, computer modeling, and simulations, to name a few.

Are businesses embracing this new wave technology? A recent TechRepublic Premium survey wanted to find out.

The survey asked the following questions:

• Have you had any hands-on experience with virtual reality (VR) technology?
• Does your company presently use virtual reality technology?
• Is your company considering adopting virtual reality technology?
• How can virtual reality vendors best help your company?
• Have you had any hands-on experience with augmented reality (AR)?
• Does your company presently use augmented reality technology?
• Is your company considering adopting augmented reality technology?
• How can vendors of augmented reality products best help your company?

Of survey respondents, 41% had hands-on experience with virtual reality, and 34% had hands-on experience with augmented reality as an IT professional. Of hobbyist, 34% were experienced with AR, and 30% of hobbyist had hands-on experience with VR. However, despite this familiarity with mixed reality, 56% of respondents do not presently use virtual reality technology in some capacity at their business, and 54% presently do not use virtual reality technology in some capacity at their business.

While virtual and augmented reality is not yet a widespread concept, it does provide business value, as evidenced by survey respondents. For example, 24% percent of respondents use augmented reality technology in simulation exercises, and 20% use virtual reality technology in employee training and testing. Other uses for mixed reality include as part of the products being manufactured, in sales, in GPS and GIS applications, and computer analytics.

To find out more about mixed reality in business download the full report here.

This report contains all the data, plus analysis, from the survey. For details on future TechRepublic Premium surveys, follow us on Facebook, Twitter,or LinkedIn.