Why Spatial Interfaces and Digital Twins Are Essential to Advancing Industrial Analytics

This IDC Perspective identifies trends in different types of interfaces for industrial analytics. Digital twins have historically represented spatial interfaces and visualizations that showcase data and analyses for physical world systems. As the data and analytics methods become more complex and interconnected, it is essential that organizations consider the adoption of these models and usability by operations workers. This is particularly true given the evolving capabilities of autonomous or assisted generation of such views."I think GenAI over time is going to make quite a lot of technology obsolete, but in the near term it offers the potential to bridge systems and develop new ways of interacting with data and technology that are highly valuable and transformative," says Jonathan Lang, research director, Worldwide IT/OT Convergence Strategies at IDC. "For example, an operator with limited IT skills could use natural language to prompt an AI system to develop a digital twin without any IT intervention. This paves the way for massive innovation and significant increases in data utilization toward data-driven decisions where they matter - at the front line."