This paper conceptualizes and explores relational trust within the context of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is built upon the rapid development of internet, mobile, near field technologies (such as Wifi and Bluetooth) and communication networks (Schrammelet al., 2011). Its foundations can be found in various works that underpin the development of artificial intelligence, where technology systems may reflect anthropomorphic reasoning based on human psychophysiological traits (Minsky, 1988, 2006). Important contributors to this are Turing and von Neumann (see Russell and Norvig, 1995; Weiss, 1999) and system control theory (see Masani, 1985 for a review of the collected works of Wiener, father of cybernetics; Kalman’s, 1960 predictive algorithm; Pearl’s, 2000 development of a calculus for probabilistic and causal reasoning). The interconnected technologies render new types of services to end users, albeit the technologies themselves are often ubiquitously consumed in their environment as a collective, made visible (at present) only through touchpoints such as smart devices and wearable technologies. Current predictions suggest that within a decade, IoT will consist of billions of objects and devices or things that have the potential to seamlessly connect people to produce services and interact and share information about themselves with each other and their environment to render services (Eloff et al., 2009). Advocates of the IoT interpret its emergence as a “new industrial revolution that will boost productivity, keep us healthier, make transport more efficient, reduce energy needs and tackle climate change” (Cameron, 2014). However, the gap between recent press coverage of the potential socio-economic consequences of the IoT and empirically based research is significant. Whilst there is a considerable programme of collaborative research being undertaken across the EU and USA into IoT technologies, the primary focus of this is the development of hardware technology and the adoption of standardized platforms and protocols. That said, many potential applications of the IoT will involve relational challenges not faced within current marketing contexts including traditional (e.g. B2C and C2C) but also parasocial and machine (M) relationships (C2M and M2M). The relational consequences on users within such service contexts and the “smart environments” they inhabit have yet to be explored in the complex many-to-many networked ecosystem that encompasses the IoT environment (Wuenderlich et al., 2015).