Marketing 6.0

CHAPTER 9Spatial Marketing: Delivering Natural Human‐Machine Interactions

In the past, humans used various methods to interact with machines, such as buttons and switches. With the advent of personal computers, new means of interaction, such as a keyboard and a mouse, were introduced. Similarly, early smartphones utilized physical keyboards and styluses. However, in 2007, the first iPhone revolutionized the smartphone industry by popularizing touch screens as the primary interface. Touchscreens became commonplace in most smartphones shortly after, establishing an intuitive human‐machine interface.

Today, screens have become the portals for people to transition between the physical and digital realms. People can now intuitively interact with screens on smartphones, tablets, self‐service kiosks, automated teller machines, and vending machines. Even in social situations or physical spaces such as coffee shops, individuals often shift their attention to their phones, immersing themselves in the digital world.

The recent advancements in technology will further fuel these more natural human‐machine interactions. We believe many advanced technologies are designed to imitate human abilities and behaviors so that machines can interact with humans better (see Figure 9.1). AI is a prime example of this, as it seeks to replicate human cognitive skills such as learning, problem‐solving, and decision making. Moreover, natural language processing (NLP), a branch of AI, focuses on imitating ...