Tim GreenHalgh on the science and art of designing retail.

As smart-phone based algorithms become smarter and "know" their owner better, brands are beginning to market to bots and algorithms rather than humans. The pivot from human buyers to bot buyers.

Gwen Morrison introduces the bot as your new customer. Forget about bricks and mortar. Forget about flesh and blood. Your new customer is a bot that's learned your customer's preferences.

A behavioral way of defining a new tribe of shoppers: always on, always looking for a new experience and always shopping. These shoppers aren't defined by traditional demographics but by a mental and emotional connection to their brands.

How to be Future Ready or Fail, says Jamie Gutfreund, is really about "wantedness" a quality that the best brands have that combines caring and exceeding expectation. It translates into the feeling that the brand cares about "me", the consumer.