Managing Knowledge in the Phygital Era: AI and Immersive Technologies for Innovation in Marketing

This study explores how advanced digital technologies—such as AI, AR/VR, and the metaverse—are transforming knowledge creation and sharing practices in marketing-oriented organizations. By applying and extending the SECI model (Nonaka, Takeuchi, 1995) within technologically augmented and immersive contexts in marketing, it offers two main contributions: first, it introduces the concept of a “phygital SECI framework” that integrates physical and digital knowledge flows; second, it identifies the emergence of the “technological agent” as an autonomous enabler of knowledge management. Drawing on qualitative insights from 21 Italian companies, this work provides a nuanced perspective on how organizations can strategically leverage immersive technologies to foster marketing innovation. Within this scenario, knowledge management plays a strategic role in bridging marketing and innovation, impacting on new forms of customer engagement, market intelligence, and collaborative innovation and acting as a catalyst for renewing the company's value proposition (Nonaka et al., 1998; Di Vaio et al., 2021; Hock-Doepgen et al., 2021)