Touch sensitive controls mean that you can just touch it to bring up information about what it is controlling. The name and value of whatever it is assigned to your software, will appear beneath it in Automap's edit-page.

This means you do not have to move the knob (and change how it was set) to see what it is controlling.

With touch sensitive controls you can 'touch in' automation data in your software. 

If you set the record mode to 'touch' in your sequencer, you can grab the control and quickly record-in changes over time, for example a filter cut-off slowly opening.