Would You Trust Your Digital Twin?

Imagine a virtual version of yourself attending meetings, replying to emails, and managing interactions using your personal style and decision-making preferences. This concept, often referred to as a digital twin, knows your values, your tone, and your priorities. Sounds futuristic? This might be closer than you think.

With remote and hybrid already reshaping how we engage with colleagues, teams, and companies, we’re increasingly comfortable with digital presence.

The next logical step? A fully-fledged digital twin? This would be the ultimate digital representation of yourself.

What Is a Digital Twin?

In the industrial world, digital twins are virtual replicas of physical systems used to simulate and optimize performance. But in the future workplace, it could become personal extensions of ourselves, using AI to replicate our style, preferences, and even our decision-making logic. Essentially, befriending your digital twin could enhance your productivity.

• Meetings Without You – Your digital twin attends meetings, taking notes, answering routine questions, and flagging important issues for your personal attention.
• Smart Delegation – Your digital twin learns your leadership style, proactively delegating tasks, answering routine queries, and freeing you to focus on strategic and creative work.
• 24/7 Representation – Your twin represents you when you’re unavailable, maintaining your professional presence around the clock, even during vacations or off-hours.

In their book Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI, Paul R. Daugherty and H. James Wilson discuss how human-AI collaboration could transform productivity, echoing this potential.

Your digital twin isn’t intended to replace you—it’s designed to amplify your productivity and effectiveness. It’s a force multiplier, allowing leaders and knowledge workers to scale their impact dramatically. It could eliminate repetitive work, boost productivity, and help us focus on what truly matters.

This idea aligns with insights from Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark, highlighting AI’s potential to augment human capabilities dramatically.

But There’s a Catch

Embracing digital twins raises obvious questions:

• Can it truly represent your values and decisions?
• Who owns the data your twin generates—especially if you move between companies?
• How much control are we willing to relinquish to an AI version of ourselves?

Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani explore these challenges extensively in Competing in the Age of AI, highlighting the importance of responsible adoption and clear governance around AI.

Yet, embracing this technology could mean becoming more impactful, influential, and efficient. Befriending a digital twin might just be the key to unprecedented productivity.

What do you think? Would you trust your digital self?