Digital twins have been in the smart building conversation for more than a decade. What is changing now is the expectation.

In this Climate Gap Quick Cuts episode, Ben Muwoki sits down with Rick Szcodronski, Chief Product Officer at Willow, to unpack how digital twins are evolving from visualisation and data layers into decision-making platforms that operators can actually trust and use.

This conversation covers what separates digital twin projects that scale from those that stall, why speed to value has become the real maturity test, and how AI is shifting operator workflows away from dashboards and towards clear, actionable decisions.

Key topics covered

- Why owners and operators are expecting measurable value from digital twins

- Speed to value and why ROI has to show up in days, not months

- Why adoption and internal champions determine whether deployments stick

- Balancing technical accuracy with usability and real operational outcomes

- Why the future is enterprise workflow integration, not standalone visualisation

- How AI interfaces reduce cognitive load and change how decisions get made

About Rick

Rick Szcodronski is the Chief Product Officer at Willow. He has spent his career in the smart building sector, starting in design consulting and smart building strategy before moving into product leadership. At Willow, he focuses on digital twin platforms and operational AI, helping owners and operators turn complex building data into practical decisions at portfolio scale.

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