Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters apologises for his 'choice of words' used to defend AI layoffs; says: We are committed to help our colleagues cope with ...

Standard Chartered's Bill Winters recently sparked a backlash with comments on AI and "lower-value human capital". Earlier this month, delivering a blunt message on the future of the bank’s workforce, Winters warned that a push into artificial intelligence (AI) will eliminate thousands of roles as the lender replaces “lower-value human capital” with technology. Winters made the comment after the British bank Standard Chartered announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs or 8% of its workforce.

The bank unveiled a plan to cut more than 15% of its support staff by 2030 through building up its use of AI to streamline operations. It employed about 52,000 people in such roles at the end of last year, with a footprint spanning India, China, Poland, Singapore, and Hong Kong. “It’s not cost cutting; it’s replacing in some cases lower-value human capital with the financial capital and the investment capital we’re putting in,” Winters said at a briefing in Hong Kong last week, adding that affected staff would receive “good clear notice” ahead of time. “We don’t have job losses, but we do have job role reductions in favor of the machines, and that will accelerate as we go forward into AI,” he said.

After his comments on stage sparked outrage, Winters said sorry in a LinkedIn post. Here's CEO Bill Winters complete 'apology':

I have received a lot of support for the messages in my previous post but still get questions about my choice of words, which I know has caused upset to some colleagues. For that I am sorry. I am therefore showing below a verbatim transcript of what I actually said, which I hope allows for a better understanding of the important point I was raising. I think the transcript makes it clear that I value our colleagues – all of them – most highly and that we are totally committed to helping them to cope with the accelerating pace of change in our industry:“For example, this new core banking system in Hong Kong, which is a major, major accomplishment. This is not an everyday thing. It happens once in 40 years. And when it goes wrong, it's a disaster. It did not, it was practically perfect. That was a two and a half year programme, to get that right. The people that were gonna be affected, who were very important for helping us get to the right answer, knew that they were gonna be affected, and we began reskilling them at the earliest possibility. We're not long on talent in the markets where we operate, because these markets are growing fast. So the people that want to reskill, that want to carry on, we're giving every opportunity to reposition. And the people that say, yeah, you know, I've done my bit, I'm ready to do something else. I take a package at the end of, at the end of the migration of the application. So this isn't, it's not cost cutting. It's replacing, in some cases, lower value, human capital, with the financial capital and the investment capital that we're putting in. But almost always, with good clear notice going forward.”