On 18 May, the chief executive of French retail giant Carrefour published a video on his Twitter page showing him interviewing several candidates for jobs at the firm. What made the exercise unusual was that it was not the CEO but his avatar welcoming candidates at a beach setting in the metaverse. The avatars in front of him represented candidates for data analyst or data scientist positions, with the candidates themselves found at their computers, being interviewed remotely. The video generated more than 1,600 comments, demonstrating companies’ growing interest in this emerging technology.
Large French firms at the forefront. Bertrand Wolff, founder of Antilogy, a company that specialises in consulting and training using the metaverse, deals with the technology on a daily basis in his work. “We are in contact with the HR departments of large groups and work with half of the CAC 40 on the subject,” he explains, adding: “Over the last three months, we have conducted a total of one hundred acculturation workshops.” A few large companies have already delved into the space. Axa claims to have organised events bringing together several hundred people in the metaverse, after buying a plot in the French metaverse The Sandbox at the beginning of the year. The French insurance group is also expected to announce a technology-related HR development in the autumn.