To put me in the shoes of a firstline worker, or someone who directly engages with customers and a company's product, Microsoft filled a hotel room with large and scary-looking factory equipment. Soon after I stepped in, there was a loud crash and everything ground to a halt. A quick glance at a status panel showed me an error code that I didn't recognize. Typically, I'd have to dig up an instruction manual to figure out what's up. A faster option? Just use Remote Assist.

After putting on a HoloLens, I rung up my colleague Kate using Microsoft Teams, who had much more expertise in the faulty machines. She first appeared in a window right in front of me, but since that made it awkward to see the machinery, I found a blank spot on a wall and said "Remote Assistance Pin" to get her video feed out of the way. I moved over to the status panel, and she quickly figured out what was up: there was an issue with a nearby belt machine, as well as some power wiring in another panel. Time to get to work.

Kate walked me through every step of the repair, since she had a clear view of what I was seeing through the HoloLens. Upon opening the first machine, the issue was obvious: the belt was loose and hanging off of its pulleys. Kate had me raise the tension lever, which gave me access to the belt, and she drew a few arrows in AR to show me how to reattach the belt. I followed her instructions, secured the tension, and hit a button to test the belt. Everything worked smoothly, naturally.

The next machine was a complicated bundle of wires and connections. To make sense of it, Kate pulled up a diagram from the manual and sent it to my HoloLens, which I then pinned on a nearby wall. After a few glances back and forth, it was clear the problem was a single burnt out wire. After replacing that, I headed back to the status screen and everything looked good to go. I hit a large button, and the machines were back up and running.

Clearly, without Remote Assist, fixing the machines would have been much more complicated. Microsoft says it can reduce repair times for issues like this to just a few hours, rather than the days or weeks it might take to fly in an expert. Mostly, I was struck by how seamless the experience was. With HoloLens, I was able to keep both hands free, while simultaneously showing Kate everything she needed to fix the situation. And thanks to augmented reality, I also had access to diagrams and manuals right where I needed them.