A tale of two

Fjord Trends 2020: Digital doubles

Digital twins are evolving beyond their role as industrial tools into our daily lives. Brands will need to learn how to interact with our digital doubles–virtual home for all our data, and gatekeepers of our digital lives.

As the pandemic forced many to stay home and become more digitally savvy, we see an even brighter future for the already promising technology of personalized digital doubles.

Digital twins are established tools in industry, with data models and virtual 3D versions of real-life machines helping manufacturers troubleshoot and plan predictive maintenance. Now, they’re getting personal. The race has begun to create virtual manifestations of ourselves.

In the beginning, digital doubles will open up a whole new world of personalized entertainment opportunities. In the wake of the pandemic and increased use of telemedicine, people may deploy their digital doubles as they seek medical attention. Eventually, it is probable that digital doubles will become a virtual home for all of our data, a single digital gatekeeper to our personal lives, over which we’ll have control (in theory, at least). People will likely soon use digital doubles to serve their own interests over those of third parties who gather and use their personal data.

With digital twins evolving to become all about us, brands and public services must learn how to design for them. Organizations in financial services, healthcare and the workplace will increasingly recognize digital doubles as essential tools to predict, optimize and personalize customer solutions.

Businesses that want to succeed must ask themselves two critical questions: How can we show people that they can trust us with their personal digital twins? How can we design digital double customer experiences that are safe, secure and engaging?