Bank of America is leveraging the metaverse to train its staff, blending virtual reality (VR) with artificial intelligence (AI) to prepare employees for various scenarios, from handling customer disputes to simulated bank robberies. According to Bloomberg, the bank's 2,000 new recruits undergo a week-long training program involving VR simulations.

These VR modules cover routine situations like assisting irate customers or handling large cash requests, as well as extreme scenarios such as a full-scale bank heist. Additionally, new hires can unwind in VR by engaging in activities like riding a unicorn or relaxing on an island. Moreover, AI is integrated into the training, enabling recruits to interact with a bot posing as a customer and receive support from another AI bot. Presently, over 200,000 Bank of America employees worldwide have access to this virtual training. Furthermore, a coaching AI bot is available in the bank's call centers to aid in-depth conversations with customers, while managers have the option to provide additional training to the bots.

Mike Wynn, Bank of America's Academy's innovation and design executive, emphasized the benefits of this training, stating that these scenarios are challenging to teach through traditional methods. Additionally, the bank is exploring the use of the metaverse at job fairs to attract a younger audience to careers in banking by providing them with a virtual experience of the bank environment.

In other news, Siemens, a German tech conglomerate, is investing $560,000 (500 million euros) to create a new tech campus near Nuremberg, Germany, which will initially manifest digitally in the metaverse. Siemens plans to invest $1.1 billion (1 billion euros) to establish a "design for the modern metaverse" in the country, with a portion of the funds allocated to the campus to transform it into a hub for exploring and experimentation in the digital realm. The campus's layout will be simulated in the metaverse before being replicated in the real world, enabling optimization and adjustments to be made digitally before construction begins.

Furthermore, Puma, Legitimate, and Roc Nation have collaborated on a sneaker collection featuring NFTs, while NFT firm Neat Labs underwent its third round of layoffs in nine months, and an NFT collector shared their experience of obtaining a $35,000 DeFi loan using a luxury Patek Philippe watch as collateral, which was turned into an NFT to secure the deal.