Standard Chartered chief executive Bill Winters has apologised after comments about replacing “lower-value human capital” with AI drew criticism from his colleagues.

The controversy followed his comments made during an investor conference discussion about automation, AI and operational transformation at the bank and his explanation of his comments in a LinkedIn post.

In a further LinkedIn post which issued the apology, Winters acknowledged that his wording had “caused upset to some colleagues.”

“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,” he wrote. “For that I am sorry.”

Winters had published what he described as a verbatim transcript of his original comments in an attempt to clarify the context behind the remarks he made at the conference.

The comments centred on Standard Chartered’s core banking migration project in Hong Kong, which Winters described as a major transformation completed over two and a half years.

According to the transcript, employees affected by the programme were informed early and offered opportunities to retrain or move into new positions within the organisation.

“This isn’t cost cutting,” Winters said in the transcript. “It’s replacing, in some cases, lower value, human capital, with the financial capital and the investment capital that we’re putting in.”

Prior to the apology, Winters had defended the bank’s approach to automation, arguing that AI was accelerating workforce change across financial services and that banks had a responsibility to help employees adapt.

“Automation has reshaped work and workforces for centuries, and AI is now accelerating that change in ways all of us are still working to understand and address,” he wrote.

As part of the investor presentation, Winters confirmed that Standard Chartered expects roles in corporate functions such as back-office operations to reduce by around 15 per cent over the next four years.

“We also made clear that Standard Chartered has, for many years, invested actively in helping colleagues whose roles may be displaced by automation to build the skills needed for new opportunities within our organisation,” he said. “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 stressed that the bank remained committed to reskilling and internal mobility as part of its broader transformation strategy.

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