AI terms come and go, but at this point, they mostly come.
As journey managers, service designers, or really anyone working on experiences, we shouldn’t adopt new tools just because they’re trending. We should adopt them because they help us deliver better outcomes.
Customer digital twins are often discussed in abstract, tech-first terms. In our previous blog, we outline what a customer digital twin is in human language. Read it here if you want to refresh your mind. Now let’s make their potential practical by applying the lens of journey management, especially when it comes to keeping solution delivery aligned with customer insights and including the voices that don’t show up in traditional research.
This blog explores two strong use cases where digital twins can make a real difference in how we design and deliver journeys that actually work.
Too often, AI and digital twin conversations start with hype and end in confusion, or worse, everyone’s still hyped but no one knows how to act.
Who doesn’t catch themselves getting a little excited about new tech, but not really knowing how to apply it in daily work? It’s common, because most of the time, the connection to concrete value just isn’t clear.
Meanwhile, we journey managers sit here watching LinkedIn explode with AI buzz, feeling the excitement but still defaulting to the same old way of working. Digital twins sound cool, sure, but do they really spark ideas on how to use them in journey management?
That’s exactly why we wrote this blog.
Through our work with clients in telco, medtech, financial services, and public institutions, we’ve identified two strong use cases where digital twins can deliver real value, not as a flashy tech demo, but as a tool to improve implementation and inclusion. Let’s walk through both.
Two use cases where digital twins improve journey outcomes
Not all digital twins should be created the same, generic way. In fact, the more specific the use case, the more valuable the application.
Through our client work, we’ve seen two recurring challenges where digital twins could make a real difference. These aren’t vague future visions, they’re practical, actionable ways to improve journey outcomes.
1. Keeping delivery aligned with customer insights
The problem
In many organisations, service designers or journey managers step away after the design phase. That’s when implementation begins, and when things often go off track.
Delivery teams like developers or content owners rarely have access to the rich customer insights gathered during discovery. Instead, they rely on handovers, summaries, or best guesses.
The result? Decisions drift from the original intent, and new solutions go live that completely miss the mark.
The customer digital twin solution
Build a customer digital twin based on the customer research from the design phase. It should be a dynamic, conversational model of key user needs, behaviours, and preferences.
Delivery teams can “ask” the twin how a customer would likely respond to a specific message, feature, or flow. It keeps customer context alive, even without direct access to real users.
The value
- Developers don’t have to guess what customers need, or chat the UX designer every minute
- Decisions stay grounded in research
- Development teams learn how the customer thinks, training their natural customer-centricity muscle
And what if we told you building this kind of digital twin isn’t a months-long project, but a matter of days?
Journey managers, service designers, we can already hear your hearts pounding.
2. Including voices you can’t survey
The problem
Many journey management efforts rely on structured data: surveys, feedback forms, analytics. And don’t get us wrong, a data-driven approach to journey management is powerful.
But some of the people most impacted by service design, like vulnerable, marginalized, or hard-to-reach groups, often don’t show up in that data.
While occasional street research or qualitative interviews do happen, they’re rarely included as part of a continuous feedback loop.
Their experiences go unrepresented. Not because they don’t matter, but because they’re harder to capture.
The digital twin solution
Take the customer insights you’ve gained from targeted efforts, such as standing on the street in a low socio-economic area to talk to people, and use them to build a digital twin that reflects these users’ needs.
This is especially relevant in government contexts where public services must serve everyone, including those who never appear in dashboards or survey results.
You can’t survey them at scale, but you can model their perspective and keep it present in design and delivery.
The value
- Decisions include perspectives that would otherwise be left out
- Services become more inclusive by default
- No need to commission new research for every update
So for those of us who got into CX to make a difference, this one’s for you.
And the relevance goes beyond governments. If you work with large customer bases, chances are you’re overlooking marginalized groups too. Digital twins can help close that gap.
One example is Volksportret, which moves away from designing marketing for a single average audience and instead adds granularity to reflect the diversity of Dutch society.
If you only do one thing after this article, make it this
Digital twins won’t improve customer journeys just because they’re a trending term.
But when we apply them to real challenges like keeping delivery teams connected to research, or representing people who rarely show up in data, they stop being hype and start being useful.
Let’s move past the buzz.
Let’s make AI tools like digital twins work for the people they’re supposed to serve.
So do us a favor: take action.
Share this post with the developer, content owner, or product lead you’re improving your journeys with.
Ask: “What if we had a digital twin of our customer, someone we could check decisions with every sprint?”
When they tell you it could be great but it’s a utopia, tell them you can help make it real in a matter of days. That way, they can start delivering better journeys – for everyone.
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