• Standard Chartered’s CEO apologized for describing some workers as “lower-value human capital.”
• Bill Winters’ comments this week sparked a debate about companies’ approach to staff in the AI age.
• Winters shared a full transcript of his comments and said they were about investment, not cost-cutting.

Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters apologized for his “choice of words” after facing backlash for describing some jobs as “lower value, human capital” during a discussion about AI-driven changes at the bank.

In a LinkedIn post on Thursday, Winters said his remarks had “caused upset to some colleagues” and shared a full transcript of what he said to provide a “better understanding” of his comments.

Winters added that the transcript showed he valued “all” employees and said the bank was committed to helping workers adapt to rapid technological change.

Here are his comments in full:

“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.”