TY - GEN
T1 - The Emotional Infrastructure of Omnichannel Communication
T2 - International Conference on Marketing and Technologies, ICMarkTech 2025
AU - Palomino-Flores, Paola
AU - Palomino-Flores, Olenka
AU - Berckholtz-Benavides, Klaus
AU - Carvache-Franco, Orly
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.
PY - 2026
Y1 - 2026
N2 - This article examines interactions between bots and human advisors in the real estate sector in the context of omnichannel communication and theories of human-machine communication. Omnichannel environments require consistency and fluidity across digital and personal channels, making the interplay between automation and human presence particularly important. Based on 12 semi-structured interviews and a content analysis of 300 users, the results show that bots are valued for their immediacy, efficiency, and availability, but their role can best be understood as temporary emotional regulators. While bots reduce initial uncertainty, users consistently relied on human advisors at crucial moments to achieve empathy, personalization, and trust building. Audiovisual resources such as virtual tours and storytelling prove to be affective capital that projects expected future scenarios and influences decisions before signing a contract. Two original contributions are presented: the conceptualization of data disclosure as “emotional currency” and hybrid interaction as socio-technical dramaturgy, in which bots, omnichannel resources, and humans jointly construct narratives of belonging, trust, and legitimacy.
AB - This article examines interactions between bots and human advisors in the real estate sector in the context of omnichannel communication and theories of human-machine communication. Omnichannel environments require consistency and fluidity across digital and personal channels, making the interplay between automation and human presence particularly important. Based on 12 semi-structured interviews and a content analysis of 300 users, the results show that bots are valued for their immediacy, efficiency, and availability, but their role can best be understood as temporary emotional regulators. While bots reduce initial uncertainty, users consistently relied on human advisors at crucial moments to achieve empathy, personalization, and trust building. Audiovisual resources such as virtual tours and storytelling prove to be affective capital that projects expected future scenarios and influences decisions before signing a contract. Two original contributions are presented: the conceptualization of data disclosure as “emotional currency” and hybrid interaction as socio-technical dramaturgy, in which bots, omnichannel resources, and humans jointly construct narratives of belonging, trust, and legitimacy.
KW - Bot
KW - Human–machine interaction
KW - Omnichannel communication
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105037436712
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-032-16288-5_27
DO - 10.1007/978-3-032-16288-5_27
M3 - Contribución a la conferencia
AN - SCOPUS:105037436712
SN - 9783032162878
T3 - Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies
SP - 372
EP - 388
BT - Marketing and Smart Technologies - Proceedings of ICMarkTech 2025
A2 - Reis, José Luís
A2 - Ruiz-Mafé, Carla
A2 - Peter, Marc K.
A2 - Reis, Luís Paulo
PB - Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Y2 - 27 November 2025 through 29 November 2025
ER -