LLMs

Digital Twins with LLMs are LLM Twins

Exploring what an LLM Twin is, its significance, and the challenges it addresses in modern AI systems.

Julia Yukovich

CEO & Founder

May 1, 2025

What Is an LLM Twin And Why LLM Twins Matter in Today’s AI Ecosystem

In today’s rapidly evolving AI landscape, the notion of Digital Twins has gained significant traction across industries. From manufacturing to healthcare, Digital Twins provide a virtual representation of physical systems, offering a unique way to simulate and optimize real-world processes. At its core, a Digital Twin is a digital entity that mirrors the characteristics and behaviors of a real-world object or system, allowing for better decision-making and enhanced operational efficiency. A simple example of a Digital Twin could be an Excel sheet representing a wallet, where income and expenses are tracked, providing an accurate reflection of the financial status at any given moment.

In the realm of artificial intelligence, this concept has evolved into what is now known as an LLM Twin. An LLM Twin is a highly personalized, knowledge-infused virtual entity built using Large Language Models (LLMs). Unlike a conventional chatbot, which responds to queries based on pre-programmed responses or generalized training data, an LLM Twin is a dynamic, context-aware replica of an individual’s knowledge, decision-making style, or thought processes. These AI-driven entities are not static; they continuously learn and adapt by ingesting data from curated sources such as blogs, social media posts, code repositories, or even personal journals. This learning process enables the LLM Twin to offer tailored, contextually relevant answers that go beyond simple responses, creating a far more personalized interaction.

LLM Twins operate using a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework, which allows them to provide accurate and reliable answers by embedding specific data into their models. For instance, an LLM Twin trained on a developer’s GitHub repositories and blog posts can offer tailored programming advice, while one trained on company documentation can function as a highly personalized assistant. This adaptability makes LLM Twins highly valuable in industries where precision and context are critical. Unlike traditional LLMs that can often suffer from hallucinations - the generation of inaccurate or irrelevant information—LLM Twins reduce this risk by grounding their responses in domain-specific data.

The significance of LLM Twins becomes especially apparent in industries such as healthcare, finance, education, and software engineering. In these fields, where accuracy is paramount, LLM Twins bridge the gap between generalist LLMs and expert-level knowledge. For example, in healthcare, an LLM Twin could serve as a domain-aware advisor, providing personalized medical information based on the latest research and patient data or support with compliance and certification processes. In finance, it could offer tailored financial advice grounded in real-time market data. Similarly, in software engineering, an LLM Twin can deliver highly personalized programming guidance, enhancing both productivity and learning.

At their core, LLM Twins represent a shift towards more sophisticated, domain-specific AI systems. While traditional LLMs can be incredibly powerful, they often struggle with niche or specialized queries. LLM Twins, however, enhance the capabilities of AI systems by creating virtual entities that learn continuously, adapt dynamically, and provide accurate, context-rich responses. These AI constructs are not just another form of chatbot; they are knowledge replicas that offer real value through adaptive reasoning, personalized interactions, and the ability to serve as trusted advisors in their respective domains.

As industries continue to embrace AI, LLM Twins offer a promising solution to the challenges faced by traditional LLMs. By embedding domain-specific data and continuously learning from curated sources, LLM Twins can significantly enhance the accuracy, trustworthiness, and personalization of AI-driven systems. This makes them an invaluable tool in fields that require high levels of precision and expertise. With the ongoing advancements in AI, the potential of LLM Twins is limitless, offering new possibilities for creating smarter, more efficient systems across various sectors. However, the true potential of LLM Twins extends beyond just enhancing accuracy; when paired with AI agents, they can actively support and even automate parts of complex processes. This synergy between LLM Twins and AI agents has the power to reshape industries, offering solutions that not only assist in decision-making but also streamline and automate entire workflows, enhancing productivity and reducing human error.

LLM Twins in Life Sciences

The Life Sciences sector is uniquely positioned to benefit from LLM Twins due to its reliance on domain-specific knowledge, regulatory rigor, and the need for explainability. LLM Twins in this context refer to domain-adapted language models that are grounded in biomedical, clinical, or molecular datasets, and optionally styled to mirror individual experts or institutional knowledge repositories.

Key applications of LLM Twins in Life Sciences include:

    • Personalized Research Assistants: LLM Twins trained on a lab’s publications, protocols, and datasets can act as on-demand collaborators - capable of proposing hypotheses, debugging experimental designs, or helping interpret data. When fine-tuned on a researcher’s work, the twin can answer queries in the scientist’s thought framework, boosting reproducibility and onboarding of new team members.
    • Clinical LLM Twins: Beyond physical simulations, LLM-based twins can interpret unstructured clinical notes, EHRs, and time-series health data to generate narratives aligned with patient trajectories. This approach mirrors the potential of Clinical Digital Twins, which e.g. create virtual cohorts to predict e.g. drug absorption, distribution, and metabolism. Even being able to predict toxicity of possible drugs. Similarly, by utilizing LLM Twins, researchers can trim risks before human trials in drug development, leading to more precise and reliable results. This capability is particularly valuable where the ability to process and interpret vast amounts of data is crucial.
    • Knowledge Curation: LLM Twins can be used to power semantic search and synthesis in drug discovery and disease modeling. By embedding relationships from curated biomedical ontologies and databases, LLM Twins can assist in finding relevant research, generating new insights, and organizing vast amounts of data. This enables faster and more efficient identification of potential drug targets, biomarkers, and therapeutic strategies, ultimately accelerating the pace of biomedical research.
    • Regulatory and Quality Systems: In highly regulated environments like Life Sciences, LLM Twins can play a crucial role in maintaining compliance with regulatory frameworks. Trained on standard operating procedures (SOPs), audit logs, and compliance templates, LLM Twins can automate documentation processes, ensuring alignment with industry regulations. This reduces manual effort, minimizes human error, and speeds up the regulatory approval process for drugs, devices, and clinical trials.
    • Multimodal Reasoning: LLM Twins can integrate embeddings from diverse data sources such as gene sequences, microscopy images, lab tests, and molecular profiles to perform unified reasoning across modalities. This multimodal capability is particularly powerful in Life Sciences, where different types of data—such as numerical parameters, PDF specifications, and imaging data—must be synthesized to gain a comprehensive understanding. In material science, for example, LLM Twins could combine experimental data with imaging results to provide deeper insights, allowing researchers to explore relationships between variables in ways that were not previously possible

An important factor that underpins the success of all these use cases in the Life Sciences sector is the availability of data in a digital format. Many labs still operate with handwritten lab protocols or lack internet access in certain research settings due to security concerns. This presents a challenge in leveraging LLM Twins to their full potential, as these AI-driven models rely heavily on large, curated datasets that are typically stored in digital formats.

However, this is changing rapidly. More and more laboratory equipment is now capable of directly collecting and transmitting data to cloud-based systems. This means that data previously stored in isolated, offline environments can now be accessed remotely, enhancing collaboration and enabling real-time analysis. The shift towards digital and cloud-based solutions is transforming the way data is collected, shared, and utilized in research environments.

As lab equipment becomes more interconnected with the cloud, it enables seamless data integration across various instruments and platforms. This interconnectedness facilitates the generation of richer datasets that can be used to train LLM Twins, further enhancing their ability to provide accurate and personalized insights. With this growing accessibility, researchers and clinicians will be able to benefit from more comprehensive, real-time data, allowing LLM Twins to operate more effectively and efficiently across a wide range of applications.

This shift is not just about improving the data infrastructure in labs, but also about empowering researchers with tools that can automatically process and analyze data. As more research facilities embrace cloud-based data storage and processing, LLM Twins will be better positioned to play a central role in advancing research, clinical care, and regulatory compliance, ultimately driving greater innovation and improving outcomes in the Life Sciences sector.

Challenges in Building and Maintaining an LLM Twin and Open Research Questions

Creating an effective LLM Twin isn’t without its hurdles, and there are several challenges that need to be addressed to ensure they function optimally. Some of the key challenges in building and maintaining an LLM Twin include:

  • Data Collection and Curation: Ensuring that high-quality, relevant, and diverse datasets are available for training, fine-tuning, or creating a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system is time-intensive and critical. The accuracy and performance of an LLM Twin are directly dependent on the richness and quality of the data it is trained on or has access to. Moreover, the curation of this data to ensure it aligns with the model's purpose and context is a key factor in achieving personalized and accurate responses.
  • Embedding and Retrieval: Fine-tuning how data is chunked, embedded, and retrieved is crucial. The way data is divided and represented within the model can dramatically impact its ability to generate precise and contextually relevant outputs. Optimizing the embedding process and retrieval methods can enhance the model’s efficiency, but it also requires a deep understanding of the domain and the specific needs of the LLM Twin.
  • Continuous Learning and Updating: An LLM Twin must evolve as its subject or domain grows. As the domain knowledge expands, the twin needs to be regularly updated to incorporate new insights and developments. Setting up continuous learning pipelines, feedback loops, and automation to update the LLM Twin is essential for maintaining its relevance and accuracy over time.
  • Privacy and Security: Especially when replicating individuals or sensitive knowledge, safeguarding data is crucial. Many industries, particularly in healthcare and life sciences, work with highly sensitive information that must be protected against unauthorized access. Ensuring that LLM Twins operate within secure, compliant environments is crucial to maintaining trust and adhering to privacy regulations.

Despite these challenges, the rise of open-source models and scalable MLOps pipelines has made building LLM Twins more accessible than ever, setting the stage for a revolution in personalized AI.

Life Sciences, however, present a unique set of barriers:

a. Data Sensitivity and Fragmentation
Biomedical datasets are often siloed, privacy-restricted, or under strict data governance rules, such as HIPAA and GDPR. This fragmentation and sensitivity limit the available training data for LLM Twins and create challenges in building continuous data ingestion pipelines that comply with legal and ethical standards.

Open question: How can federated learning or differential privacy-enhanced RAG pipelines be made feasible for biomedical data curation?

b. Ontology Integration and Semantic Alignment
In Life Sciences, knowledge is tightly interlinked through ontologies such as SNOMED CT or MeSH. These structured, hierarchical frameworks help define the relationships between medical concepts. LLM Twins must align with these ontologies to ensure accurate retrieval and embedding, preventing factual inconsistencies.

Open question: Can LLM Twins integrate graph neural network outputs or ontology-based constraints into their decoding process? 

c. Interpretability
In the Life Sciences sector, trust is essential, particularly when AI is used in clinical settings. LLM Twins must provide explainable reasoning for their outputs, such as treatment suggestions or biomarker correlations. This not only improves trust but also ensures that their decisions are auditable and transparent, which is vital in regulated industries.

Open question: What is the optimal method to combine RAG with symbolic AI (e.g., logic rules or expert systems) to ensure traceability in biomedical LLM Twins?

d. Temporal and Contextual Drift
Biomedical knowledge evolves rapidly—new diseases, treatments, and research findings emerge constantly. For example, the rapid development of information surrounding COVID-19 variants has shown how quickly the biomedical landscape can change. An LLM Twin trained a few months ago may already be outdated, which poses a significant challenge in ensuring that the model remains accurate and up-to-date.

Open question: How can knowledge freshness and context-dependent reasoning be maintained in real-time without retraining the entire model? 

e. Cross-modal Twin Construction
Life Sciences often require reasoning across multiple modalities, including genomics, histopathology, wearable data, and more. Developing unified twin architectures that can fuse these data types is still in the experimental phase. The challenge lies in combining these heterogeneous sources of information into a cohesive model that can make informed decisions across all data modalities.
Open question: How can transformer-based architectures be extended to cross-modal RAG pipelines combining LLMs with vision or bioinformatics encoders?