Deciphering the Worth of Digital Twins

Technology brings big opportunities, if done right. Consider the example of the digital twin. Roughly 75% of companies who say they are familiar with the digital twins also think the technology can deliver immense value for their organization. Think cost savings, better insights, and improved risk management, just to name a few.

Hexagon recently released new insights in its The Digital Twin Industry Report. The report used data from the company’s Digital Twin Value-Maturity survey, which questioned 660 C-level executives and their direct reports about the adoption of digital twin technology within their organization. The survey reached around the world and focused on 11 key sectors including AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction). The research was conducted between April and June 2024.

Here we find this report defines digital twin as a precise digital representation of the physical world that uses dynamic data to simulate, analyze, monitor, and optimize performance. Simply, the bottomline is the companies that are doing digital twin right are seeing significant value. Only 2% don’t acknowledge digital twins can provide any value. Some of the biggest benefits of digital twin include:

• Improved efficiency
• Proactive problem solving
• Reduced risk
• Better product or service quality
• Better reliability
• Improved safety and security
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Reduced costs
• Increased collaboration
• Prolonged lifetime of object/system
• Increase in revenue
• Reduced carbon emissions

That last point is an interesting one, though. Roughly eight out of 10 organizations recognize their digital twin is helping reduce their carbon emissions. What’s more, 38% report seeing a carbon emissions benefit to a large degree, and those that see a carbon reduction report emissions falling by an average of 15%. That is a huge value for the AEC industry.

How? Digital twins provide greater data and insights—and when combined with AI (artificial intelligence), they can provide a much greater level of predictive maintenance, scenario testing, risk management, and automated realtime reporting. Roughly 80% of leaders say AI has made them more interested in the digital twin. Most use cases are either the processing of front-end data or enhancing the user experience.

A few big challenges remain such as data quality, integration, interoperability, and the ability to reach SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses).

But tech companies are beginning to solve some of these challenges, and it is something I witnessed firsthand at Bentley Systems’ Year in Infrastructure 2024 (YII2024) where openness of digital twins took center stage. While I dig into this more in another blog, the big takeaway was tackling all the data can help equip engineers so they can make better decisions. This is done by making sure the data is open and accessible and understanding what the data means.

The bottomline is digital twins, AI, and other technologies are here, and the construction industry must respond if it wants to build better, resilient, and more sustainable infrastructure. Do you agree?

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