The COVID pandemic forced a natural experiment in remote technical support. Field service engineers could not travel. Installations, maintenance, and emergency repairs that traditionally required on-site expert presence had to be managed remotely — with video calls over Zoom and Teams, verbal instructions, and the field technician's hands as the expert's only interface.
Mixed reality platforms like Microsoft Teams with Microsoft Mesh, PTC Vuforia Chalk, and Scope AR WorkLink formalise and dramatically improve this remote expert model. Rather than a technician holding a phone with a camera and narrating what they see, MR platforms provide a see-what-I-see interface with annotation tools: the remote expert can draw circles, arrows, and text directly onto the technician's live view, with annotations anchored to physical objects so they move correctly as the technician's camera moves.
The fidelity improvement over basic video calls has measurable operational impact. Studies in industrial field service contexts show MR-assisted remote support reducing call resolution time by thirty to fifty percent and increasing first-call resolution rate significantly — meaning fewer escalations to on-site visits.
Architecture and construction are emerging as high-value MR use cases. Design review in mixed reality — overlaying a building model onto the physical construction site — allows architects, engineers, and contractors to identify discrepancies between design and construction as work progresses, rather than discovering them during inspection. MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) coordination — the process of ensuring different systems do not physically conflict — can be performed in MR simulation before any installation begins.
The hardware barrier for mixed reality — specialised headsets costing ₹2-5 lakh — is real but falling. WebXR standards are enabling MR experiences through standard browsers on smartphones, dramatically expanding access beyond enterprises that can justify dedicated headset investment.