The Rise of Human–Computer Integration in Marketing: A Theory Synthesis

ABSTRACT Human–computer integration (HCInt) technologies, which merge human bodily, cognitive, and sensory functions with computational processes, are reshaping the foundations of consumer experience. Unlike traditional human–computer interaction, HCInt entails adaptive and reciprocal coupling through AI‐driven augmentation, wearables, muscle–computer interfaces, and brain–computer implants. This article offers the first marketing‐oriented conceptualization of HCInt, bridging marketing, psychology, and human–computer interaction research, and clarifying how these technologies, progressing from external systems to embedded interfaces, transform consumption by altering embodiment, perception, and agency. Employing a theory synthesis approach, the paper integrates dispersed insights from human–computer interaction, psychology, and marketing. The resulting model distinguishes between fusion (technology as bodily extension) and symbiosis (adaptive human–AI co‐regulation) and explains how these integration modes operate through neurocognitive mechanisms of embodiment, peripersonal space, and bodily self‐consciousness to generate experiential coupling in the customer journey. The model yields new theoretical linkages between technological integration and embodied consumer experience, identifying both opportunities (inclusion, personalization, experiential continuity) and challenges (privacy, inequality, and threats to mental integrity). The paper thereby advances theory by extending embodiment and customer‐experience frameworks to the domain of HCInt and delineates a foundation for future empirical and ethical inquiry into this emerging form of technologically mediated consumption.