Standard Chartered chief executive Bill Winters has sparked concern at the global bank after talking of redundancies, with artificial intelligence replacing "lower-value human capital" – despite efforts to explain the remarks away.
Mr Winters made the comments on Tuesday at the company's investment forum in Hong Kong, hours after Standard Chartered indicated that it would cut as many as 8,000 jobs over the next few years. Recent polls show many around the world increasingly worried about AI causing a major labour disruption.
A Standard Chartered employee told The National that the chief executive's remarks were made during a media briefing where he was asked about the company’s overall workforce mix.
“It is about a shift from lower-value to higher-value work, not a comment on people,” the employee said, adding that a journalist took a brief portion of Mr Winters's quote “and ran with it".
On Wednesday morning, an email sent to Standard Chartered employees composed by Mr Winters sought to calm some of the anxiety.
“Many of you will have seen media coverage following the Investor Event in Hong Kong, particularly the reporting around automation, AI, and workforce changes,” the email seen by The National read.
“I know this may be unsettling when reduced to simple headlines or a quote out of context … we will continue to prioritise investment in reskilling and redeployment wherever we can. Where changes do happen, we will handle them with thought and care.”
On Wednesday, Standard Chartered posted about the Hong Kong investment event on several social media platforms, but did not specifically mention AI or Mr Winters's human capital remarks.
The company quoted Roberto Hoornweg, head of corporate investment banking instead, who said that "clients value our ability to originate and transform risk".
Comments in response to the posts were pointed.
"I hope no 'lower value human capital' were in attendance," wrote one user in response to Standard Chartered on X.
Another said: "Must be lower human value."
The remarks made by Mr Winters came days after Google's former chief executive Eric Schmidt was loudly booed while delivering a graduation speech in Arizona. The loudest jeers came when Mr Schmidt told graduating students about the need for young workers to adapt to AI.
Although much of the backlash faced by Mr Winters and Standard Chartered revolved around AI worries, there was also concern over how he referred to employees as "human capital".
The term generally refers to a person's economic value, in terms of their skills, experience and knowledge. But in some parts of the world, such as the US, the phrase has connections to slavery, and its use has been criticised by the labour rights and union movements.
In an article written for Harvard Business School's publication Working Knowledge, researcher Caitlin Rosenthal's deep dive into accounting records from southern plantation owners explores the use of the term.
The records, which focused on how slaves were physically punished for a drop-off in productivity, were a major factor that led to plantation owners referring to slaves as "human capital" to dehumanise them.
"Thinking about human beings as interchangeable commodities for sale, or abstract units of labor power, would lead merchants and planters to see human capital in much the same way that they saw animals," Ms Rosenthal wrote in her book, Accounting for Slavery.
In a brief email to The National, a representative for Standard Chartered repeated that Mr Winters's comments about AI were simply taken out of context.
Meanwhile, over on Mr Winters's LinkedIn page, he was taken to task.
"You call human beings 'lower value human capital'. I live in Hong Kong and will never do business with your bank," said one user.
Another wrote: "It is inevitable that AI could displace or replace certain roles but why would a CEO label his colleagues with such a term?"
Mr Winters has not yet publicly addressed his comments about AI, but earlier on Thursday told investors: "We're super excited about what we're going to do today."
