Omari Hitson builds Ohio’s spatial future

Most 27-year-olds are still mapping out their future. Omari Hitson is busy building Ohio’s.

As Lead Product Designer for Emerging Technologies at JPMorgan Chase, Hitson works at the frontier of spatial computing — where human experience, digital design, and emerging interfaces converge. Omari leads a global community of more than 400 designers, technologists, and product practitioners across three continents, mentors dozens of early-career designers, and guides XR programs that reach over 300,000 employees. His influence extends beyond the corporate world: as President of the Ohio chapter of the VR/AR Association, he’s cultivating a statewide movement that positions Ohio as an unexpected XR powerhouse aiming to drive real world adoption of this pivotal technology.

At its core, Hitson’s philosophy is simple: designers are modern philosophers, and every product choice either clutters the world or clarifies it. His work brings that idea to life by collapsing the gap between the physical and digital — transforming abstract prototypes into intuitive, spatial experiences that feel native to how people actually think and move.

That human-centered approach is reshaping how industries across Ohio build technology. Through his leadership in JPMorgan Chase and the Ohio VR/AR Association, Hitson has fostered collaboration between healthcare innovators, aerospace engineers, defense technologists, educators, and financial designers — all learning to think spatially from the start. The result: faster prototyping cycles, stronger validation environments, and millions in funding and patents tied to Ohio-based XR initiatives.

“Ohio’s advantage isn’t theoretical,” Hitson often explains. “It’s structural.” Within a few square miles, the state hosts one of the nation’s most complete cross-industry networks — precisely the environment needed for emerging technologies to move from idea to deployment. By connecting those dots, he’s turning the Midwest into the testbed where spatial computing finds its practical form.

Omari’s vision for Ohio innovation

Hitson imagines a future where Ohio becomes the world’s proving ground for what he calls “medium fluency” — the ability to design seamlessly across physical, digital, and spatial interfaces. In that future, “Ohio-validated” carries the same weight as FDA approval does for medicine: a guarantee that new technologies work, scale, and make sense in the real world.

It’s a vision built on collaboration, not hype. By 2050, Hitson envisions Ohio as the global capital of intuitive spatial design — where companies prototype new experiences across AR, VR, wearables, and neural interfaces, and where young designers see no reason to leave because the most forward-looking work is happening right here.

Picturing Ohio’s next moonshot

If the last revolution in human-computer interaction was mobile, the next is spatial—and Ohio is quietly claiming first-mover advantage. The state’s dense mix of industries, research institutions, and design talent gives it the unique ability to build what Hitson calls the “Concept-to-Production Pipeline,” a 90-day validation network spanning universities, corporations, and manufacturers.

The concept flips the script on coastal innovation: while others pilot, Ohio produces. When that model scales statewide, emerging technologies won’t just be imagined here — they’ll ship from here.

An invitation to help shape the future of XR in Ohio

Hitson is excited for 2026 and says he, and his community in Ohio, are building something special: an XR conference that will bring together innovators, creators, and visionaries to explore the next frontier of immersive technology. Whether you're deep in the XR space or just getting started, Hitson invites you to join this journey.

This profile is part of the OhioX and Ohio Tech News Next25, a series highlighting the leaders, 35 and under, driving the state's innovation economy. From responsible AI to medtech breakthroughs, discover the full class of 2025. Meet the Next25.