Living digital twins give factories real-time AI control while keeping human oversight

Industrial plants are adopting “living” digital twins that mirror equipment in real time and can act on the physical world, according to a MIT Technology Review report link. AVEVA’s chief product officer Rob McGreevy describes the newer twins as adaptive models that keep pace with live conditions, providing a layer of visibility and orchestration previously missing.

A 2026 Manufacturing Leadership Council survey found 66 % of manufacturers are using or planning to use agentic AI, with 40 % expecting some factory autonomy by 2030. Deloitte’s 2025 smart manufacturing survey, however, reports 65 % of executives rank operational risk among their top concerns. McGreevy says AI will likely remain supervisory, intervening only in narrow, repetitive tasks while humans define healthy operating limits.

Case studies include Saudi Aramco’s Yanbu refinery, where optimization algorithms adjust production in a closed loop under operator oversight, and Nestlé’s Nesquik plants, which achieved a 16 % energy reduction while improving yield. Thailand’s SCG Chemicals reports 99 % plant reliability and a nine-fold ROI in six months from an AI-supported twin.

Our read: The technology promises efficiency gains and tighter control, but the reliance on human-set boundaries and the still-limited scope of full autonomy suggest a gradual, risk-aware rollout rather than an immediate overhaul of industrial labor.