The American CEO of a British multinational bank is using LinkedIn for damage control after sparking backlash over remarks that angered workers.
Standard Chartered PLC Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters, 64, turned the professional networking site into an apology platform this week after making comments suggesting that artificial intelligence will replace “lower-value human capital.”
Winters, whose net worth is estimated at $377 million, made the remarks on Tuesday at an investor conference, saying the company plans to eliminate about 8,000 support roles over the next four years due to AI adoption, according to Bloomberg.
While AI-driven job cuts have been widely discussed by chief executives across the industry, his choice of wording in describing certain roles as “lower value” has drawn particular criticism.
Among the critics was former Singapore President Halimah Yacob, who spoke out against Winters’ comments, particularly given that Singapore and Hong Kong serve as key hubs for Standard Chartered’s global operations.
“Workers are human beings with families, not just a form of capital,” Yacob wrote on Facebook. ”Imagine the morale of those who remain behind knowing that they are just another form of capital to their employer, who don’t really care about how they feel,” she continued.
Meanwhile, the CEO, who has held his position at the London-headquartered bank for more than a decade, has scrambled to defend his remarks in two very different-in-tone posts on his LinkedIn profile.
In his first post, Winters doubled down on his remarks and sought to clarify what he had said.
He noted that, as part of the Tuesday investor presentation, the bank had projected a roughly 15 percent reduction in roles in Corporate Functions, which the CEO wrote are often referred to as “the back office,” over the next four years due to automation.
“In that context, I said that lower-value roles are more vulnerable to automation, and that we have a responsibility to help colleagues move into higher-value roles,” Winters added, once again framing roles as “higher value” and “lower value,” which was at the heart of online backlash.
Three hours later, following further criticism in the comments under his apology, Winters posted again—this time apologizing for his remarks and including a transcript with carefully placed commas to clarify exactly what he said at the Tuesday conference.
“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,” Winters wrote in his post.
In the transcript, Winters is presented as saying that AI is “replacing, in some cases, lower value, human capital, with the financial capital and the investment capital that we’re putting in.”
In a Wednesday memo to staff, reviewed by Bloomberg, the CEO appeared more empathetic, reassuring employees about the bank’s commitment to managing its workforce transition.
In response to a request for comment, Standard Chartered Plc referred the Daily Beast to Winters’ LinkedIn posts.
