The next chapter of I-Bhd’s i-City Finance Avenue in i-City, Shah Alam, will be the deployment of technology infrastructure to enable businesses to put up immersive experience centres seamlessly. According to the developer, immersive experience centres will be the next retail point.
I-Bhd director Datuk Eu Hong Chew points out that with the issuance of digital banking licences in Malaysia, the financial industry is moving towards the immersive virtual sphere very quickly.
The Super AI technology ecosystem that i-City continues to extend to the RM1.5 billion GDV Finance Avenue will allow tenants to enjoy the infrastructure for their businesses.
Eu adds that moving alongside such technological developments is key to future-proofing the proptech development. He notes that unlike traditional banks, digital banking offers banking and financial services completely online, without the need for physical branches.
Sultan Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah with I-Bhd chairman Tan Sri Lim Kim Hong at i-City Finance Avenue. It was the far-sighted decision of Sultan Sharafuddin more than a decade ago that spurred the transformation of Shah Alam
The inclusive nature of digital banking may make mainstream investments such as foreign exchange, precious metals and real estate more accessible to the general public as well as the underserved segments.
“For instance, if we were to look at the partnership synergy between Sea Group and YTL Digital Capital Sdn Bhd that form a digital bank, Sea Group brings a deep understanding of insights into consumer and micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) behaviour through its subsidiary, Shopee Malaysia, while YTL has a wider segment of individuals and SMEs,” says Eu.
“Through Shopee, Sea Group plays an important role in uplifting both the underserved and unserved markets by allowing these segments to transact and sell across borders through e-commerce.”
He opines that the continuous uplifting of the underserved community widens the prospect of opening up the investment market to a wider group of people, especially with the availability of blockchain technology that allows real-world assets to be digitised and transacted in fractions, such as buying a RM1,000 share of a property worth RM1 million.
“The main challenge now is to educate people so they understand complex investment concepts. Considering that digital banks do not set up physical branches, it is important for this segment of financial services to help consumers understand their offerings through digital means, such as games and virtualisation,” says Eu.
Mercu Maybank at i-City was officially launched by Maybank Group chairman Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa (right), which saw 1,500 Maybankers move into the smart tower
“The digital banks may even explore communications beyond mobile phones, such as immersive experience centres through the integration of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and machine learning.”
He says that with the merging of technology and real estate, i-City Finance Avenue will be the first development to provide ready infrastructure for such needs.
i-City Finance Avenue is already home to Mercu Maybank, a smart corporate tower, and DoubleTree by Hilton. It will soon welcome BeCentral residential tower, an international convention centre, premium offices and experiences centres.
Benefiting the retail and healthcare sectors
With digital banking closing the economic divide between the underserved and unserved markets and the mainstream economy, retailers stand to benefit, according to online lifestyle retailer Oxwhite founder C K Changr.
According to him, such economic inclusion will allow a wider group of Malaysians to have better purchasing power and accelerate the adoption of immersive experience centres within the wider community.
“From banking to retail, this segment will make up the largest group of consumers across the board in the next 10 years. Despite spending a lot of time on their mobile devices, the next generation of consumers require a differentiated offline experience to be engaged,” he says.
Changr, who has a deep understanding of online consumer behaviour through data insights, notes that it is important for brands to provide a differentiated experience that goes beyond social media to engage successfully with this group of consumers. As a result, immersive experience centres will be a great solution and those with first-mover advantage will benefit the most, he adds.
“i-City is a vibrant regional development that can draw investors and tourists. I hope it will become one of the catalysts for development in Selangor,” says Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari
With advances in digital technology, however, online selling will evolve. “We will eventually invest in an experience centre in the future and it [will be] an extension of our e-commerce channels and use data to engage with consumers. This is where they can try or test the products virtually and thereafter make payments seamlessly, eliminating the need for queues,” he adds.
Immersive experience centres will also benefit the healthcare industry, says DOC2US co-founder and CEO Dr Raymond Choy. “The current telemedicine scene provides caregivers and patients convenient access to healthcare without the constraints of locations and cost.
“The trade-off, however, is due to the lack of physical face-to-face experience such as body language, facial cues and empathy. An immersive experience centre will be able to simulate all these human experiences while removing the location barrier.”
Such benefits could be extended to three prongs, namely patient-doctors, healthcare providers-caretakers and the overall healthcare sector, Choy opines. For patient-doctors, an immersive experience centre will be useful for mental health consultations, especially for patients with limited mobility and those who require constant surveillance, such as stroke, cardiovascular risk and diabetic patients.
In terms of the healthcare providers-caretakers segment, there will be better hands-on guidance for patients’ caretakers regardless of their doctors’ location. As for the overall healthcare sector, an immersive experience centre will provide a better training experience for healthcare professionals, says Choy.
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Making the metaverse a reality
With the next wave of customer engagement moving towards immersive experiences, I-Bhd executive director and chief technology officer Ricky Lim is of the view that the property industry has come to the crossroads of the augmented metaverse and physical space.
Technology and real estate should coexist to cater for the needs of changing consumer trends, he says, highlighting that the optimisation of data to provide immersive consumer experience should start taking precedence over the optimisation of floor space.
The RM10 billion i-City, Malaysia No 1 technology city, which has been earmarked as an international zone, is setting the stage to welcome such a tech-centric community since it created a smart community in the 1990s.
“i-City is the first urban centre that comes with an integrated certified Tier-3-ready data centre and super AI network. This Malaysia Digital status (formerly known as MSC Status) ultrapolis is also equipped with fibre-optic connectivity provided by major telecommunications companies such as Digi, Maxis, TIME and Telekom Malaysia,” says Lim.
“In this regard, we are able to provide our tech-centric tenants in i-City Finance Avenue with the benefits of convenience and security while working in a smart building, as well as technology infrastructure to establish their customer experience centres.”
To demonstrate its capability of providing super AI network connectivity, i-City will unveil an immersive 3D metaverse experience as a part of its theme park offerings. The new experience will be rolled out in stages starting from the 2023 new year countdown.