Where Digital Twins Fit: Google Cloud’s New Research Model

Digital twins can make customer insight dramatically faster and more accessible, but they aren’t the answer to every research question. The bigger opportunity is understanding where they fit within a modern research practice, especially when time, cost, or access constraints leave valuable business questions unanswered.

In this webinar, Google Cloud and Focus: Digital Twins will explore how Google is using AI Participants, custom digital twins created by real people, alongside traditional research. You’ll see how the team applies digital twins across use cases ranging from messaging and positioning to strategic planning, sales pitches, content development, and product naming. The discussion will also cover how Google validates results, builds confidence in the approach, and gives stakeholders beyond the research team greater access to customer perspectives.

Rather than treating digital twins as a replacement for human research, this session focuses on how the two can work together. Drawing on Google Cloud’s experience, you’ll get a practical framework for identifying the right use cases, validating results before scaling, setting clear boundaries, and measuring the additional research and business decisions digital twins make possible.

What You’ll Learn

• Where digital twins fit: How to identify research questions that benefit from speed and iteration, and when traditional human research is still essential.
• How to build confidence before scaling: Ways to validate digital twin responses, set clear boundaries, and introduce the technology responsibly.
• How to expand the reach of research: How digital twins can help answer previously unmet research needs and bring customer perspectives into more business decisions.