Near Field Communication (NFC) is a short-range wireless communication technology that operates at 13.56 MHz and enables two-way data exchange between devices or between a device and a passive NFC tag at distances of up to about 4 centimeters (1.6 inches). NFC is a subset and extension of the HF RFID standard (ISO/IEC 14443 and ISO/IEC 15693), adding peer-to-peer communication modes that allow two active NFC devices to exchange data bidirectionally. NFC is the technology powering contactless payment systems (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay), transit cards, hotel key cards, and the "tap to pair" pairing of Bluetooth accessories.

In AIDC and enterprise applications, NFC serves distinct use cases from UHF RFID. Because NFC requires extremely close proximity, it is inherently more secure than UHF RFID for access control, authentication, and anti-counterfeiting—an NFC-enabled product tag can require intentional physical contact to read, preventing accidental or unauthorized reads. NFC tags can store 48 bytes to 8KB of data (depending on the tag type), sufficient for URLs, vCard contact data, device configuration payloads, and product authentication records. NFC is also used for "tap-to-configure" device provisioning in enterprise mobility deployments, allowing IT to tap a Zebra TC72 mobile computer with an NFC configuration tag to automatically push a staging profile.

The practical range limitation of NFC (a few centimeters vs. meters for UHF RFID) means it is not suitable for bulk inventory scanning or dock-door receiving where UHF excels. NFC is best deployed for point-of-sale interactions, anti-counterfeiting, single-item authentication, and consumer engagement. Enterprise mobile computers including the Zebra TC72 and MC9300 include NFC readers, as do most modern iOS and Android smartphones, making NFC an attractive touchpoint technology for both worker-facing and consumer-facing applications without requiring dedicated hardware.