The New Frontier: How Spatial Intelligence Is Reshaping Real Estate and Tourism

As presented at: Fifth Annual Augmented and Virtual Reality Policy Conference

Sept. 9, 2025

Washington, DC

Immersive technology is critical to future competitiveness in defense, industrial policy, the digital economy and much more.

Two exciting applications today for this transformational technology are real estate and tourism, perfect proving grounds for the mainstreaming of immersive experiences. These industries contribute over $6 trillion to the U.S. economy, and they are already digital-first. For example, some 97% of homebuyers start online.

A key facilitating consideration is that much of the underlying content is already “immersive.” Millions of homes and thousands of cultural sites have already been captured in 3D and 360° formats. From real estate walkthroughs to travel previews, these assets are not just photos.  They capture spatial data, depth information, entire environments. 

And it’s not only captured spaces that are available. Digitally rendered 3D materials are also part of this ecosystem such as new construction projects and architectural renderings that are inherently immersive. 

In other words, the content is already there waiting. That means, in many cases, we don’t need to start from scratch. We simply need to extend and enhance how people experience it. The key enabling opportunity here is to make these experiences accessible consistently across devices from phones and desktop computers to VR headsets, and now AR glasses.

This evolution is already happening on today’s web and generating favorable results.

• Matterport has digitized over 10 million spaces, representing more than 30 billion square feet of built environment.
• Zillow listings with 3D tours drive 43% more views and 55% more saves than those without.
• The virtual staging market is projected to hit the multi-billion-dollar mark by 2033.
• In tourism, immersive previews and AR-guided exploration are quickly becoming the baseline for discovery.
• Zillow uses AI to generate home descriptions, and Realtor.com enhances staging visuals with AI.
• Expedia has rolled out generative trip planners. 
  

Today, hardly anyone puts on a headset to buy a house or plan a trip. But millions already experience immersive content on the web. That’s why the immersive web matters. Web pages can be created that function on the devices people already use today. And they work even better on XR devices! Just as the browser was the killer app for PCs and mobile browsers made smartphones indispensable, the immersive web will be the bridge that will make XR mainstream. 

The 2D scrolling behavior that defines today’s web and mobile experiences is familiar and efficient. Most of all, it’s easy. However, hardware makers have solved many technical challenges to make 3D immersion breathtaking, from displays to sensors to ergonomics. 

But a gap still remains. Those amazing immersive experiences are disconnected from the way people use devices today on the web with scrolling. That’s why the opportunity isn’t about replacing the web with 3D. It’s about extending it into 3D.

What Codazen is building is a hybrid that takes the familiar 2D foundation that billions depend on every day and blends it seamlessly with 3D immersion. It’s not a leap into a disconnected metaverse, but an evolution of the web. One that feels more intuitive, more human and ultimately more powerful because it combines the efficiency and familiarity of 2D with the depth of 3D.

This space will also be the perfect proving ground for a new kind of AI called spatial intelligence. Simply put, spatial intelligence is AI that understands space, not just text or images but the environment around you. 

In real estate, that could mean an AI guide that knows when you’re looking at the kitchen and describes its features. In tourism, it’s an AR guide that can tell you about the artwork you’re facing. 

But here’s the key: these kinds of spatially intelligent assistants only work if the underlying environment is consistent and standardized. A fragmented or proprietary XR ecosystem makes it impossible to scale. A truly immersive web — open, standardized, interoperable — gives AI the foundation it needs to deliver spatial awareness, visual cues and real-time guidance across devices. That’s what transforms immersive content from ‘”cool visuals” into everyday, useful experiences.

These new spatial interfaces will extend the web into 3D. And spatially intelligent systems will adapt to users within spatial environments using true spatial intelligence. Real estate and tourism are the proving grounds because of their economic scale.

At Codazen, we’re building the on-ramps: intelligent and immersive experiences. We aim to collaborate with hardware vendors to enable the immersive web to function on the latest XR products and improve browser standards to ensure these immersive experiences work consistently based on open standards.

But this is bigger than technology. What’s at stake isn’t just real estate or tourism. It’s how people everywhere will interact with computers and information. We have an opportunity to define the next standard of the web, the future of our digital economy, and how that drives the future of the physical economy.