Arek Szadkowski (Arkadiusz Szadkowski) leads ArcGIS Reality globally at Esri, working with Esri’s distributors on how to bring reality mapping to market. On 2DIAMR, recorded live at INTERGEO 2026, Arek Szadkowski talked about Gaussian splats in ArcGIS Reality, who pays for them, AI and semantic search, and Esri’s living digital twins.
Episode
23 minExpo & conference podcast
Nobody puts Gaussian splats in tenders yet – Arek Szadkowski, Esri
Arek Szadkowski · Esri
In Arek’s words
“I have not seen yet, maybe I've seen one or two, but I have not seen a mainstream yet tenders specification that includes Gaussian splats.”
“Within the next two to three years we will see a huge shift in the way the mapping is done in the industry.”
“People think that we are a closed environment, and we are absolutely not.”
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Questions Arek answered
- Does Esri ArcGIS support Gaussian splatting?
- Yes – per Arek Szadkowski, ArcGIS Reality exports Gaussian splats from the same alignment as true orthos, DSMs, meshes and point clouds, and Esri is adding imports of splats made in third-party software. ▶ 8:37
- Are Gaussian splats included in surveying and mapping tenders?
- Not yet in the mainstream, according to Arek Szadkowski (Esri): early adopters deliver splats as an add-on extra, and Arek had seen only one or two tenders that specify them (as of October 2026). ▶ 10:57
- How will AI change mapping with Gaussian splats?
- Arek Szadkowski expects semantic search in splats – asking a language model to segment, map and find assets – to shift how mapping is done within two to three years; Esri is experimenting with it. ▶ 7:30
- What are Esri Ground Splats?
- Per Arek Szadkowski, Ground Splats are splats from high-end 360 mobile mapping cameras, computed together with LiDAR data so the geometry comes from the laser, announced at INTERGEO 2026. ▶ 20:12
- Is Esri ArcGIS a closed system?
- No, says Arek Szadkowski: Esri provides SDKs and APIs for almost every programming language, and service providers and system integrators can integrate with ArcGIS. ▶ 22:51
Talks about
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