AI image generated by Clementine Bata using ChatGPT and Claude AI
I have to confess…..
ChatGPT and Claude AI have been saving my life!
As a business educator and consultant, moments of free time can sometimes be very short-lived, and honestly, if I can “hire” a free personal assistant that can help design curricula, write academic performance objectives, or simply help me refine emails or business ideas, I am ALL in…
AI’s transformative features in our lives must absolutely be acknowledged and, indeed, celebrated. Tech efficiency is arguably at its highest peak since the mainstream adoption of the internet or the creation of smartphones! Personally, I thank the universe for putting me on a path where I can now finally reclaim these moments of freedom.
But are we forgetting anyone in this new AI revolution?
Let’s quickly run some numbers….
According to Forrester, tech spending will grow by 7.8% in 2026 to reach $5.6 trillion….
You absolutely read that right…. Trillion is the number—how many zeros again? 12 zeros (I had to Google it too—just believe me 😁).
Honestly, I am now gathering my thoughts, trying to truly imagine what $5.6 trillion could do in my life. I could probably buy the GDPs of a few countries like Ghana, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and still casually extend my money into the pockets of a few other nations simply for the sake of showing off….
But seriously, let’s pause for just a moment. The tech industry is undeniably big business. Most people would naturally say that technology has permitted a major leap in efficiency since the Industrial Revolution. In fact, I think that Adam Smith or economist Friedrich Hayek would probably recognize that same truth from their graves.
However, my question is this: why are we trading technological progress for efficiency when innovation is still not equally shared worldwide, let alone in my own country, the United States, where CX management is still badly misunderstood in many business settings?
Meanwhile, business ethics inevitably come into play when millions have lost their jobs at a time when decentralized innovation could have realistically safeguarded citizens’ welfare by keeping them employed.
At the end of the day, employees are also customers of big tech.
You see, internal marketing is fundamentally a feature of CEM, also written as CXM, meaning Customer Experience Management. Within this framework, companies must intentionally ensure that employees align with their organizational values while simultaneously promoting a customer-centric culture where employees genuinely remain at the heart of organizational performance.
If I understand this correctly, AI was originally invented by teams of researchers—not by robots. The same applies to the newly fired employees who previously developed the AI agents and knowledge systems needed to strategically and operationally make these tech companies function effectively.
So, can Zuckerberg honestly explain to us why about 7,000 employees were recently put on the chopping block while he simultaneously stated, and I quote: “We had strong business performance in 2025. I’m looking forward to advancing superintelligence for people around the world in 2026” (Meta press release, 2025)?
Quite obviously, Zucky was not particularly focused on internal marketing, let alone external marketing, especially since his employees are also Meta users. His vision excluded the very same people who initially helped make him and his business successful in the first place.
Sadly, business ethics have gone terribly wrong, and eventually, those decisions may come back to haunt him.
You see, karma somehow has a way of creeping in very silently and unexpectedly… You’re making bank, yet you still do not share. Ultimately, you simply want to have your cake and eat it too.
Unfortunately, Customer Experience Management is increasingly lacking in the United States, which, interestingly enough, used to be at the forefront of the movement nearly twenty years ago.
The S-D logic framework by Vargo and Lusch, first developed in 2004, clearly states that service is the fundamental basis of exchange. More broadly, exchange can also be referred to as trade. Fundamentally, we are trading societies.
(And a quick, respectful shoutout to Dr. Cate Johnson at WVU, who made me read her book Commercial Society—co-authored with Lusch—so carefully that this idea of a “trading society” has been permanently embedded in my academic thinking 😁.)
Consequently, when big tech believes it can efficiently handle business through technological automation while simultaneously reducing the workforce to increase profit and productivity, it gradually removes the exchange nature of service for “people.”
Yes, business educators and consultants like me will certainly use AI for service, but realistically, not everybody will have the credentials, the opportunity, or even the financial capability to do so.
For example, I regularly travel to many developing nations each year where communities still do not have reliable access to consistent power supplies. So, can Zucky and his tech bros realistically explain how AI will genuinely serve people living under such conditions?
Furthermore, can he also explain how his laid-off employees will continue paying their electric bills to access the AI services they themselves helped promote and create while working at Meta, especially if businesses everywhere continue laying off employees simply because they have now become “super efficient,” and CEOs increasingly believe they only need themselves and their massively inflated egos to succeed?
Ultimately, as a global community, we genuinely have to do more for the world and for each other.
Customer Experience Management is inherently humanistic in nature, just as trade itself is, as extensively detailed in the S-D logic framework by Vargo and Lusch. Institutional arrangements fundamentally need “the people.”
Otherwise, we are gradually losing our shared humanity.
— Clementine Lucie Bata, MBA
Business Educator | CX Strategist | DBA Candidate at Capella University | Master’s in Economics Candidate at WVU
Clementine Lucie Bata specializes in Customer Experience Management (CXM), business ethics, AI integration, and organizational strategy. Through education, consulting, and digital innovation, she helps organizations create customer-centric systems that improve retention, engagement, and long-term profitability.
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