A New Book by Hamilton Jones · Coming 2026
Defining Human Machine Experience as a discipline. The first book on designing for both human customers and the AI systems acting on their behalf, and knowing which audience matters most at any given moment.
The Evidence
All three major AI labs have independently built crawlers, citation systems, browsing agents, and agentic protocols. Not one has published guidance for organisations on how to design for this new audience. That gap is where this book sits.
Weekly active ChatGPT users interacting with brands on behalf of customers
OpenAI / DemandSage, Feb 2026
Higher conversion rate from AI-referred visitors compared to organic search
Semrush, July 2025
Of ChatGPT-cited pages have zero Google visibility. A new discovery layer has arrived.
Ahrefs, October 2025
Of CEO revenue projected to come from machine customers by 2030
Gartner
Of customers willing to delegate service interactions to AI agents acting on their behalf
Gartner, 2025
Year-on-year growth in LLM-driven traffic to commercial websites
Backlinko
The Thesis
What this book argues, and why it matters now.
As machines handle routine interactions, the remaining human-led moments become disproportionately valuable. The rise of the machine audience makes it more important, not less, to know where human experience is irreplaceable.
AI agents browse, evaluate, compare, shortlist, transact, and service on behalf of human customers. Designing for this audience is a distinct skill with its own principles, tools, and success metrics.
It is not human experience or machine experience in isolation. It is knowing when each matters and designing the transitions between them. This is the core of Human Machine Experience, HMX.
What The Book Delivers
The book introduces five original frameworks, none of which exist anywhere in the current literature. They are purpose-built for a problem no existing toolkit addresses: designing experiences where human customers and AI systems interact with your organisation simultaneously.
Why five new frameworks?
The strategic case for machine customers has been made. Gartner has documented the revenue opportunity and the C-suite urgency. What has been missing is the design layer: the operational tools for teams who need to build experiences that serve both audiences without compromising either.
These frameworks are the book's structural backbone and its primary commercial IP. Each one answers a question the existing literature leaves open.
Inside The Book
The reader moves from reassurance to clarity to confidence to resolve. They finish feeling more capable, not more anxious.
Part One
Reassurance
Your CX investment was not wasted. You just need a new lens. This section defines the dual audience, makes the evidence-based case for why it matters, and introduces the spectrum that connects human and machine experience.
Part Two
Clarity
Here is what to actually do. AI visibility, machine journey design, experience architecture, and machine trust. Four chapters, each with a framework you can apply on Monday morning.
Part Three
Confidence
You know where you are and exactly how to move forward. A maturity model, organisational archetypes, and a practical audit that gives you a baseline without needing external help to start.
Part Four
Resolve
The window is open now. Agentic commerce, the human floor, and why the organisations that build HMX capability in 2026 and 2027 will define the standard for everyone who follows.
Where This Book Sits
Gartner has spent a decade building the strategic case for machine customers. Their research documents the revenue opportunity, the three-phase evolution model, and the C-suite urgency. That work is right, and it matters.
What it leaves open is the question a CMO, CCO, or CDO actually faces on Monday morning: how do you design for both audiences simultaneously, and how do you know, in any given moment, which one matters most?
That is a design question, not a strategy question. It does not have a playbook yet. This book is the playbook.
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