Costs and benefits of digital twin adoption in UK construction: a statistically tested stakeholder perception study

Purpose There is limited quantitative data on the weighting of costs and benefits of digital twin (DT) for stakeholders in the UK and this paper re-tests sub-group differences from a 2022 survey. Design/methodology/approach The 74 members of DTHub rated 15 benefits and 10 costs (scale of 0–4) and ranked both by Relative Importance Index (RII) (full sample) as well as two experience-based sub-samples (Group A n = 17; Group B n = 57). Corrected Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H tests were used to explore differences and Spearman correlations were used for rank agreement. Findings Operational benefits (Lean Construction, Effective Data Sharing, Improved Decision Making, Construction 4.0) topped net-zero and United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) benefits. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Components, Skilled Personnel and IoT Devices/Systems were the top-rated costs. There were no significant differences between sub-groups after correction (groups shared similar priorities of benefits, but not costs). Research limitations/implications Due to the small, self-selected sample (n = 74; Group A n = 17), this limits the power of the study and null results are not confirmatory. Larger replication (mixed methods) across contexts is recommended. Practical implications Operational benefits should be the main consideration for a new DT framework. For the dominant costs, coordinated investments between industry, government and education in AI, skills and IoT are needed; for the environmental-perception gap, evidence, not communication is needed. Originality/value One of the first construction DT RII studies to formally test differences in sub-group rank with dual correction, providing a tested baseline for research following Centre for Digital Built Britain and a transferable example of RII research.