When companies talk about digitizing business, they are often referring to intellectual processes — making them more efficient through collecting, organizing and disseminating information digitally. They don’t mean taking physical assets and actually making them digital. But digital twin technology offers companies a way to conceptually do just that — some experts say the industry is just beginning to discover the business value of virtualized machines.

Dimitri Volkmann, Digital Twin thought leader at GE Digital, said that digital twin technology is ripe for democratization. He spoke to Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE*, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during the GE Minds + Machines event, noting the distinction in digital twin roles. First, there are the digital twin builders who need great expertise in the ins and outs of the asset in question. Then there are digital twin consumers, which would include the end users.

“As a developer, if I want to do a nice app to optimize the usage of my […] engine in my business, I don’t need to be an expert on spark plugs,”Volkmann said. It’s his desire to open the digital twin world to a broader demographic to allow for experimentation.

“We’re in the process of releasing a toolkit if you want, so that anybody can build a digital twin on our platform and they don’t necessarily need to be GE assets,” he said. Using the models and their intelligence, he said that users can find ways to reinvent their businesses.

Best use case scenarios

Volkman believes one of the most groundbreaking uses of twins will be in their feedback loops with the asset.

“A human will make the final decision,” he said, but operations can be piloted by the twin, because it works two ways. “It uses data but can also receive information and act on the machine,” he explained.

*Disclosure: GE and other companies sponsor some GE Minds + Machines segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither GE nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of GE Minds + Machines.

Photo by SiliconANGLE