Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming a critical business imperative. No longer a nice to have, AI and machine learning (ML) are a necessary business tool for forward-thinking organizations, helping them make better decisions, create operational efficiencies and improve customer experiences.

In particular, enterprises have widely adopted digital twins—virtual models that simulate reality—over the past several years, allowing them to create digital copies of real-world systems, environments, products and infrastructures for greater operational insight.

Cognitive digital twins—that model individual consumers, businesses, or even national governments—have enabled organizations to explore strategic choices and new business models. And now, as AI/ML technologies have advanced and as the cloud’s scale and economics have made large computer environments more effective, the use of digital twins has begun to accelerate and expand.