Advertising giant Publicis Groupe made an unusual executive hire in mid-2022 — a lion-headed digital avatar named Leon who would serve as “chief metaverse officer,” guiding clients through the virtual realm that had seized real-world attention.

His moment in the spotlight didn’t last long.

Five months later, ChatGPT debuted, and the buzz that had surrounded the metaverse ever since Mark Zuckerberg renamed Facebook as Meta Platforms shifted to artificial intelligence. Leon and other, human officers focused on the metaverse, an immersive digital reality where people can interact with one another, quickly became an endangered species.

Executives spearheading metaverse efforts at Walt Disney, Procter & Gamble and Creative Artists Agency left. Leon’s LinkedIn profile (yes, he had one), no longer exists, and there’s no mention of him on the company’s website, other than his introductory news release. Publicis Groupe declined to comment on the record.

Instead, businesses are scrambling to appoint AI leaders, with Accenture and HealthCare making recent hires. A few metaverse executives have even reinvented themselves as AI experts, switching from one hot technology to the next. Compensation packages average well above $1 million, according to a survey from executive-search and leadership advisory firm Heidrick & Struggles. Last month, Publicis said it would invest $327 million over the next three years on artificial intelligence technology and talent.

“It’s been a long time since I have had a conversation with a client about the metaverse,” said Fawad Bajwa, the global AI practice leader at the Russell Reynolds Associates executive search and advisory firm. “The metaverse might still be there, but it’s a lonely place.”

The C-suite reshuffling illustrates the fickle nature of technology trends, and the difficulty corporations face distinguishing hype from reality.

Most companies have largely moved on from the metaverse. The word was uttered just twice on earnings calls at S&P 500 businesses last quarter, compared with 63 times in 2022’s first quarter, according to Bloomberg transcript data. All were chasing a piece of a global business opportunity that McKinsey & Co. consultants at the time optimistically estimated could be worth $5 trillion by 2030.

Apple’s decision to refer to its new mixed-reality headset Vision Pro as a “spatial computing” device, with no meta-mentions whatsoever, is another sign that “the focus has definitely shifted,” according to Nada Usina, CEO and co-founder of NU Advisory Partners, an executive search and advisory firm focused on boards and the C-suite. Microsoft last month overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable public company, largely thanks to investors’ enthusiasm for its aggressive investment in AI. Even Meta’s Zuckerberg, who once proclaimed the metaverse “the next frontier,” has recently focused instead on generative AI after spending billions on metaverse initiatives that have borne little fruit.

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