Agentic Digital Twins: A Taxonomy of Capabilities for Understanding Possible Futures

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive taxonomy of agentic digital twins, categorizing their capabilities along three dimensions, and explores how these configurations influence their performative power in shaping realities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel taxonomy of agentic digital twins based on three fundamental dimensions and identifies key configurations and their implications for system performativity.

Findings

Identifies 27 configurations of agentic DTs across three dimensions.

Classifies configurations into three clusters: Present, Threshold, and Frontier.

Highlights how configurations influence the performative power of digital twins.

Abstract

As digital twins (DTs) evolve to become more agentic through the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), they acquire capabilities that extend beyond dynamic representation of their target systems. This paper presents a taxonomy of agentic DTs organised around three fundamental dimensions: the locus of agency (external, internal, distributed), the tightness of coupling (loose, tight, constitutive), and model evolution (static, adaptive, reconstructive). From the resulting 27-configuration space, we identify nine illustrative configurations grouped into three clusters: "The Present" (existing tools and emerging steering systems), "The Threshold" (where emergent properties appear and coupling becomes constitutive), and "The Frontier" (where systems gain reconstructive capabilities). Our analysis explores how agentic DTs exercise performative power--not merely representing physical systems but actively participating in constituting them. Using traffic navigation systems as examples, we show how even passive tools can exhibit emergent performativity, while advanced configurations risk performative lock-in. Drawing on performative prediction theory, we trace a progression from passive tools through active steering to ontological reconstruction, examining how constitutive coupling enables systems to create self-validating realities. Understanding these configurations is essential for navigating the transformation from DTs as mirror worlds to DTs as architects of new ontologies.