We are in an era where everyone is talking about AI, and many claim that various processing problems can be managed with AI.

Listening casually, one might think of AI as a kind of intelligent brain that can be purchased with a high budget. If you talk to various IT companies eager to sell their products, they will surely tell you that “AI can definitely be bought.”

But we may need to ask ourselves what AI actually is? Is it really what we understand it to be?

If we say that AI is a “brain” without considering its technological aspects, it could be likened to a highly intelligent senior employee with vast knowledge. In terms of hiring someone for that role, “money” can certainly bring them on board immediately.

The question is whether hiring someone with such high potential as a senior employee in an organization and having them start working right away guarantees that the “results” the organization will benefit from this person will definitely occur?

For business owners or executives with experience in hiring many employees, they will know that the answer is “nothing is guaranteed.” You have to “try working together first.”

Why can’t it be guaranteed when this person is highly skilled, not just boasting a resume, has a great attitude, and is eager to learn everything?

The answer is that every organization has its own uniqueness, including work systems, culture, philosophy, and principles, especially “exceptions” or what could be called unwritten rules.

Therefore, no matter how skilled an employee is, they must adapt. If that employee is determined to succeed and is willing to adjust, what they need is “time” to learn the content and information within the organization.

If the organization has various scattered regulations that are not systematic, adapting to learn will take a long time. Another scenario that may occur is that the employee might think, “Enough... I can just stay still and chill, I don’t need to think too far ahead because from what I see, they don’t take any progressive ideas. Getting a high salary and working day by day is fine.”

This kind of situation suggests that AI is no different. Any intelligent system, whether from a global organization in the West or East, if it comes from “outside your organization,” no matter how intelligent it is, it will become a “dumb system” in your world immediately because it has no prior knowledge about your organization. Even if you run a factory in Thailand, if you use AI that only understands factory management systems from Germany, it will be of no use.

Thus, AI, in essence, can be purchased just to be “installed” to start working. However, for it to develop and produce results, it needs time to “learn.”

This learning comes from what is called “Machine Learning” (I won’t go into detail here; you can find more information through general searches). To enable the AI system to learn quickly, the data flow must be organized correctly, with a good data flow structure.

To have a good data flow, there must be a good data collection and processing system, which means there must be a “quality data storage” as well.

In the real estate world, that “data storage” is the Digital Twin. The Digital Twin teaches AI what a building looks like (BIM Model), instructs the building on where each piece of information resides (IoT), and processes what to do next (Data Analytics), summarizing it for humans to make decisions.

As AI develops to a certain point, it will begin to predict (Predictive) events, and as it becomes smarter, the system will be able to prescribe solutions (Prescriptive). The Digital Twin computer will be able to tell what needs to be fixed, when, and may even take action by issuing a purchase order to order supplies for corrections, comparing prices, and doing it automatically.

Therefore, investing in Digital Twin is not just about reducing costs today, but it is an investment to accumulate data that will lead to the creation of Artificial Intelligence for your organization, making your business sustainable and significantly impacting the value of your organization in the future.

Specifications: Digital Twin is a digital twin or a three-dimensional virtual model of an asset created by collecting and organizing vast amounts of data from various sources to form a digital database of a building or real estate asset that reflects accurate, consistent, and real-time information.

Article by

Asst. Prof. Dr. Porn Virulrak

Independent Scholar in Property Technology

CEO of Asset Activator

Vice President of the BIM Association of Thailand

Expert in Digital Twin Technology Thailand