Standard Chartered · Hong Kong · Fortune Technology
That same day, the CEO published the full transcript of his comments in an attempt to contextualize the situation
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In a comment to Fortune, a Standard Chartered representative highlighted Winters’ commitment to revamp the workforce into a skills-forward company.
Key facts
- Last year alone, around 55,000 roles were slashed in connection to the technology—and another 502,000 of jobs are expected to be lost for the same reason in 2026, according to the National Bureau
- The company cut at least 4,000 of its customer support roles for AI agents to pick up the work, and cited that when it comes to Salesforce’s business interactions, around “50% are with agents, 50% are with humans
- And Marc Benioff, the CEO of the $148.5 billion computer software company Salesforce, hasn’t minced words on the topic either
- Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has also been outspoken on the topic of AI automation
Summary
Workers are anxiously awaiting the fate of their careers as more employers tout the opportunity to automate certain roles, and even whole departments. The baby boomer bank leader took to LinkedIn to admit that his words had unnerved some of his coworkers. The finance leader first made the controversial comments at an investor briefing in Hong Kong last Tuesday, saying: “ is replacing, in some cases, lower value human capital with the financial capital and the investment capital we’re putting in.” And while Winters had also added that the company is giving staffers “every opportunity to reposition” and reskill, labeling some workers as less valuable in the tech revolution quickly sparked criticism.