Cheating the Old Brain: AR/VR Trends and the Road to 2026

This talk traces the evolution of AR and VR over the past decade and explores where the medium is headed next. Drawing on advances in human perception, interface design, and artificial intelligence, it examines how immersive technologies are increasingly shaped around the brain itself—optimizing for attention, embodiment, and cognition. The session offers a forward-looking perspective on how XR may transform interaction, learning, and presence in the years ahead.

About the Speaker:

Anuj Gosalia is a senior engineering leader who has spent two decades building foundational technologies across immersive computing, graphics platforms, and large-scale AI systems. Most recently, he served as a Research Engineering Manager at OpenAI, where he led the inference team responsible for shipping GPT-4o, 4o-mini, O1, O1-mini, Advanced Voice, Prompt Caching, and Structured Outputs, and for re-architecting a new high-performance inference stack for next-generation models.

Previously, Anuj was CVP Immersive Experiences Architect at Microsoft, where he proposed and built Windows 365 MR, enabling rich mixed-reality experiences streamed from cloud GPUs for immersive productivity and collaboration. He also served as SVP and Chief Software and Cloud Officer at Magic Leap, leading a company-wide turnaround toward enterprise AR, reshaping the product roadmap, and modernizing engineering culture and execution.

Earlier in his career, Anuj was Senior Director of Engineering at Google, where he led ARCore from inception to over one billion installs, built the Google Lens client, powered AR features in Google Maps and Search, and aligned the Android OEM ecosystem around AR. At Oculus (Meta), he ran the core VR software stack for Rift and Gear VR, including graphics, drivers, APIs, and engine integrations, helping pioneer industry-defining techniques such as asynchronous time warp. He began his career at Microsoft, overseeing graphics platforms and helping drive the development of DirectX 12 and the modern Windows driver model.

Across roles at OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Magic Leap, and Oculus, Anuj has consistently worked at the intersection of human perception, real-time systems, graphics, and AI—building the technical foundations behind today’s immersive and intelligent platforms.