You can use any NFC card (like a hotel key card, which the author doesn't, but I do, usually return on check-out, it seems) to connect it to an iPhone shortcut. Tap the card and it triggers some action, response or workflow.
Says people use it for playlists and lights too. I don't really buy his examples though. You either have to have an NFC in a fixed location (the 'lights' example I believe therefore), or on the move you'd have to dig out the 'right' NFC from someplace (your already full wallet?) then tap it to the phone. That creates actually _more _ friction. 'I stuck a tag on my desk for ....' something specific like he suggests (a list of articles on AI from past 24h) leads to a range of tags on your desk, like when Amazon suggested you have a bunch of tags, one for each product, to build your shopping list. Didn't happen.