Standard Chartered (LON: STAN) chief executive Bill Winters has apologised after describing employees at risk of being replaced by artificial intelligence as “lower value human capital” at an investors conference.
Winters made the remarks while discussing how automation would likely lead to thousands of job losses at the global bank, which employs around 82,000 people worldwide.
He said the cuts were not about reducing costs but “replacing, in some cases, lower value, human capital, with the financial capital and the investment capital that we’re putting in”.
The bank subsequently confirmed it expects to cut approximately 15% of its back-office roles over the next four years, amounting to around 7,800 positions.
Winters took to LinkedIn to contextualise his conference remarks, saying he was sorry for wording that had “caused upset to some colleagues” and reframing what he had intended to convey.
He wrote that he had said “lower-value roles are more vulnerable to automation” and that Standard Chartered had a responsibility to help colleagues move into higher-value positions within the organisation.
“That is what a responsible employer should do, and I am proud that our track record in supporting internal transitions is strong,” Winters wrote in his LinkedIn post.
A second LinkedIn post followed, in which Winters shared a transcript of his original conference remarks after saying he had received “a lot of support” but that people still had questions about what he meant.
He said the full remarks demonstrated that he valued all colleagues “most highly” and that the bank remained “totally committed to helping them to cope with the accelerating pace of change in our industry”.
Reaction in the comments beneath the posts was mixed, with some readers unconvinced by the clarification. One commenter wrote that the situation was “either a poor choice of words or an honest belief that came out as intended.”
Another commenter told Winters: “You will forever be known as the guy who believes his employees are ‘lower value’.”
In an internal memo sent to staff earlier this week, Winters acknowledged that employees may find recent media coverage “unsettling when reduced to simple headlines or a quote out of context”.
He told staff the bank would prioritise redeployment “wherever we can” and pledged that where changes do occur “we will handle them with thought and care”.
A Standard Chartered (LON: STAN) spokesperson said the bank was combining “the best human talent with AI” and working on “equipping colleagues with future-ready skills for both opportunities in the bank and employability outside of the bank where this is not possible”.
The controversy at Standard Chartered reflects a broader trend across the financial services and technology sectors, where major firms have cited AI as a driver behind significant workforce reductions over the past year.
Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft have all attributed tens of thousands of layoffs to automation and AI adoption, as the technology continues to reshape labour markets across multiple industries.