The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in contemporary marketing has not merely transformed executional tools but has fundamentally altered the nature of the brand–consumer relationship. Machine learning algorithms, deep neural networks, and reinforcement learning systems have propelled marketers beyond the stage of responding to explicit needs into the realm of predicting, simulating, and even engineering unconscious preferences. In this inaugural editorial for the Journal of Smart Marketing Management, we adopt an analytical–theoretical approach grounded in the scientific literature of 2024–2026 to address the foundational question: In the age of hyper-personalization and the Digital Twin of the Customer (DToC), does any space remain for human volition and agency, or is the consumer gradually becoming an emergent property of probabilistic models and continuous algorithmic optimization? Recent scholarship demonstrates that AI-driven dark patterns, algorithmic choice architectures, and the feedback loops of recommender systems have so thoroughly permeated consumer decision-making processes that distinguishing between intrinsic and algorithmically induced preferences has become exceedingly difficult. Nevertheless, emerging research in consumer psychology and the philosophy of technology underscores the necessity of reclaiming autonomy through algorithmic transparency, regulatory oversight, and digital consumer literacy. This article argues that the future of smart marketing lies neither in the complete domination of consumer will nor in the illusion of unfettered choice, but in the design of ecosystems that simultaneously honor predictive efficiency and respect for consumer agency. This stance establishes the theoretical framework for the journal’s future inquiries: a transition from data-driven marketing to dignity-based marketing.