Digital twin deployments surge in BFSI sector, study finds

Digital twin tech is trending in banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), according to Altair's 2023 Global Digital Twin Industry Report. The report, which contains findings from a survey of 2,000 professionals in 10 countries, was published Aug. 15, 2023.

Altair, a global computational science and AI provider, found widespread use of digital twin technology, which involves creating digital models of physical objects for testing purposes, according to Sam Mahalingam, chief technology officer at Altair.

"The BFSI sector today faces a range of challenges—from new competitors to heightened consumer expectations to addressing increased regulatory demands and combatting ever-more sophisticated criminal activity," he said. "All this puts the sector under extreme pressure to deliver exceptional products and services."

Mahalingam noted that the report underscores how quickly and broadly digital twin technology is being deployed to prepare for the future and solve current challenges in the following ways:

• Operational efficiencies: 54 percent of survey respondents use digital twins to optimize business processes.

• Behavioral modeling: 51 percent use digital twins to digitally monitor real-time behavior.

• Predictive analytics: 51 percent use digital twins to proactively monitor and anticipate future events.

Researchers reported 71 percent of professionals surveyed said their firms already use digital twin technology, placing the BFSI sector in third place behind automotive and heavy equipment industries. In addition, they noted, 97 percent said the technology was "important" to their organization, and 71 percent said digital twin tech was "very important" to their organization.

"BFSI's emphasis on applying digital twin technology for monitoring and predicting is unsurprising, since these functions allow teams and organizations to better prevent fraud, monitor and predict customer/borrower behavior, track customer satisfaction, and more," researchers wrote.

For additional information on survey methodology and to access the full report, visit www.altair.com/one-total-twin/bfsi

Metaverse applications

An ebook, published in January 2023 by NVIDIA, titled 5 Steps to Get Started with Digital Twins, describes digital twins as virtual replicas of assets, processes and environments that leverage 3D internet technology to create a new class of AI-enabled simulations.

Describing the models as live, connected, synchronized and true-to-reality physics, materials, lighting, rendering and behaviors, researchers stated that digital twins enable designers, developers and researchers to test physical-world concepts and make recommendations and autonomous decisions based on the laws of physics.

Noting that most enterprises rely on a variety of 3D applications and data formats, researchers recommended building a flexible, extensible platform based on open data standards and scalable computational resources, beginning with the following five steps:

1. Identify a use case and look at how other companies executed their plans.

2. Evaluate data and environment and create a data strategy to make sure you have sufficient data to build in 3D.

3. Build a team by matching roles to skill sets in existing talent pool, which would ideally include tech, engineering, data science experts in the plans.

4. Start small to avoid trying to do too much too soon. Digital twin projects can be ramped up and scaled incrementally.

5. Measure and communicate to tie outcomes to an original problem to drive interest, support and funding for broader digital twin initiatives.

"The next decade will be completely transformative for companies across all industries as they embrace the possibilities of the metaverse and advanced simulations to develop new products and services, enhance customer experiences, and unlock speed agility and operational efficiencies," NVIDIA researchers wrote, further noting that metaverse applications are rapidly spreading into multiple industries, enabling enterprises to digitally design products, processes and facilities using 3D simulations.

Additional information and a downloadable copy of the report are available at altair.com/one-total-twin/bfsi

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