Which companies use augmented reality?

Rooftop Immersive Studio · 05 okt 2026

Companies across nearly every major industry use augmented reality, including retail, automotive, healthcare, entertainment, manufacturing, and education. AR technology is no longer limited to tech giants – businesses of all sizes are adopting it to improve customer experiences, streamline operations, and communicate complex ideas in more engaging ways. The sections below explore exactly who is using AR, how they are using it, and how your organization can get started.

What industries use augmented reality the most?

The industries that use augmented reality most heavily are retail and e-commerce, automotive, healthcare, entertainment, manufacturing, and education. These sectors share a common need: they must communicate complex, spatial, or emotionally nuanced information in ways that traditional media simply cannot deliver. AR closes that gap by layering digital content onto the physical world in real time.

Retail brands use AR to let shoppers visualize products before buying. Automotive manufacturers use it for design, training, and after-sales support. Healthcare providers use AR for surgical planning and medical education. Entertainment companies use it to extend storytelling beyond screens. Manufacturers and logistics firms use it to guide workers through complex assembly processes. Educational institutions use it to make abstract subjects tangible and memorable.

What these industries share is an engagement problem that passive media cannot solve. AR works because it activates participation rather than observation, and that shift from passive to active drives measurably stronger outcomes across all of them.

Which retail and e-commerce brands use augmented reality?

Major retail and e-commerce brands including IKEA, Sephora, Nike, Warby Parker, and Amazon have integrated augmented reality into their shopping experiences. These companies use AR primarily to reduce purchase uncertainty – letting customers visualize how a product will look in their home, on their face, or on their body before committing to a purchase.

IKEA’s AR application allows users to place true-to-scale furniture models in their living spaces using a smartphone camera. Sephora’s Virtual Artist feature lets customers try on makeup shades without visiting a store. Nike has used AR to help customers find their correct shoe size through foot-scanning technology. Warby Parker built a virtual try-on tool for eyewear that uses facial mapping to simulate how frames will look.

The commercial logic behind these investments is straightforward. When customers can experience a product in context before purchasing, return rates drop and conversion rates rise. AR transforms the act of browsing into something closer to ownership, and that emotional preview is a powerful driver of purchase confidence.

How do automotive companies use augmented reality?

Automotive companies use augmented reality across the entire product lifecycle – from design and engineering to showroom sales and after-sales maintenance. Manufacturers like BMW, Porsche, Audi, and Ford have all integrated AR into their workflows to accelerate development, improve precision, and create more compelling customer experiences.

During the design phase, AR allows engineers and designers to overlay digital prototypes onto physical environments, enabling teams to evaluate proportions, ergonomics, and aesthetics without building expensive physical models. On the factory floor, AR-assisted assembly guides workers through complex procedures step by step, reducing errors and cutting training time significantly.

In the showroom, AR gives customers the ability to configure vehicles in real time – changing colors, trims, and features on a life-sized 3D model rather than scrolling through static images. After purchase, AR-powered service manuals guide technicians through repairs by projecting instructions directly onto the vehicle components they are working on. Porsche, a company we have worked with directly, has used immersive experiences to bring exactly this kind of spatial storytelling to life for its audiences.

What are examples of augmented reality in healthcare?

Augmented reality in healthcare is used for surgical planning, medical training, patient education, and rehabilitation. Companies and institutions including Johnson & Johnson, Philips, and various medical schools are deploying AR to improve precision, reduce risk, and make medical knowledge more accessible to both practitioners and patients.

Surgeons use AR headsets to overlay imaging data – MRI scans, CT data – directly onto a patient during a procedure, giving them a real-time spatial reference without looking away from the operating field. Medical students use AR to explore three-dimensional anatomical models, gaining spatial understanding of the human body that flat textbooks cannot provide.

Patient education is another growing application. Rather than explaining a diagnosis through diagrams, clinicians can show patients an AR model of their own anatomy, making complex conditions immediately understandable. In rehabilitation, AR environments are used to make physical therapy exercises more engaging and to provide real-time feedback on movement quality. The common thread across all these applications is that AR makes the invisible visible and the abstract concrete.

How do entertainment and media companies use augmented reality?

Entertainment and media companies use augmented reality to extend storytelling beyond the screen, creating interactive experiences that blur the boundary between content and audience. Studios, broadcasters, sports organizations, and live event producers have all adopted AR to deepen engagement and open new revenue streams.

Snapchat and Instagram built their early growth partly on AR filters that made user-generated content more playful and shareable. The Pokémon GO phenomenon demonstrated at scale that location-based AR could mobilize millions of people and generate genuine cultural moments. Sports broadcasters use AR graphics to overlay real-time statistics and visualizations onto live footage, making complex data immediately readable for viewers.

Live events are increasingly incorporating AR to create moments that audiences cannot experience anywhere else. Concerts, festivals, and brand activations use AR installations to transform physical spaces into layered, interactive environments. For media producers adapting linear content into immersive formats, AR offers a way to extend intellectual property into participatory experiences that retain narrative depth while inviting genuine audience interaction.

Which companies use augmented reality for employee training?

Companies including Boeing, Walmart, Siemens, UPS, and various energy and construction firms use augmented reality for employee training, particularly in environments where hands-on practice with real equipment is expensive, dangerous, or logistically difficult to arrange at scale.

Boeing has used AR to guide aircraft assembly technicians through wiring processes, overlaying step-by-step instructions directly onto the components being worked on. This approach reduces errors and cuts training time compared to reading from printed manuals. Walmart deployed VR and AR training across its store network to prepare employees for high-pressure scenarios like Black Friday rushes, allowing staff to practice decision-making in realistic simulated environments.

In sectors like oil and gas, construction, and utilities, AR training allows workers to rehearse emergency procedures and complex maintenance tasks without exposure to real hazards. The learning outcomes are stronger because AR engages spatial memory and muscle memory simultaneously – the same neural pathways activated by real experience. For organizations like UNICEF and PwC, with whom we have collaborated, immersive training tools have proven effective at building empathy and understanding around complex social and organizational topics.

What’s the difference between how large enterprises and small businesses use AR?

Large enterprises typically use augmented reality as an integrated operational tool embedded across departments – in manufacturing, training, sales, and customer service – while small businesses tend to deploy AR for focused, customer-facing applications such as product visualization, marketing activations, or in-store experiences.

How large enterprises deploy AR

Enterprise-scale AR adoption is often driven by efficiency and risk reduction. A global manufacturer might deploy AR across dozens of facilities to standardize assembly procedures and reduce costly errors. A multinational retailer might integrate AR into its e-commerce platform to serve millions of customers simultaneously. At this scale, AR becomes infrastructure – connected to existing data systems, maintained by dedicated teams, and measured against operational KPIs.

How small businesses use AR

Smaller organizations typically start with a single, high-impact AR application that solves a specific problem. A boutique furniture brand might build a room visualization tool. A local museum might add an AR layer to a single exhibition. A startup might use AR at a trade show to stand out from competitors. The investment is more contained, the use case more specific, and the results are often immediately visible in customer engagement or sales conversion. The barrier to entry has fallen considerably in recent years, making AR accessible well beyond the enterprise tier.

How can a company get started with augmented reality?

A company can get started with augmented reality by identifying a single, concrete problem that AR is well suited to solve – whether that is reducing product returns, improving training outcomes, or deepening visitor engagement – and then partnering with an experienced AR studio to develop a focused proof of concept.

The most effective starting point is not the technology itself but the experience you want to create. Begin by asking what your audience currently finds confusing, passive, or unconvincing, and then consider whether a spatial, interactive layer could change that. Product visualization, guided training, and location-based brand activations are all well-established entry points with measurable outcomes.

From there, the key decisions involve platform: will the experience run on a smartphone, a headset, or a fixed installation? – and scope. A smartphone-based AR activation requires less infrastructure than a custom headset experience, but the right choice depends entirely on your audience’s context and your goals. Budget considerations are shaped by factors such as the complexity of the 3D assets required, the degree of interactivity, the number of simultaneous users the experience must support, and whether the project requires custom hardware or integration with existing systems.

Working with a partner who handles the full journey from concept to deployment – as we do at Rooftop Immersive – means you are not navigating those technical decisions alone. Our work spans brand activations, educational installations, and cultural experiences, and we bring the same commitment to meaningful storytelling to every scale of project. If you are ready to explore what AR could do for your organization, we would love to hear from you – contact us to start the conversation.