{"id":236,"date":"2026-05-28T19:14:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T19:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=236"},"modified":"2026-05-28T19:14:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T19:14:06","slug":"boos-ai-washing-and-low-value-human-capital-the-psychological-traps-ceos-are-falling-into-when-they-botch-their-ai-messaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=236","title":{"rendered":"Boos, AI-washing, and \u2018low-value human capital\u2019: The psychological traps CEOs are falling into when they botch their AI messaging"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters proved that last week when he said the London-based bank would replace \u201clow-value human capital\u201d with artificial intelligence. The dismissive language triggered outrage from the public, condemnation from unions, and questions from regulators about the extent of potential job cuts. Winters spent several days trying to clean up the mess he\u2019d created, but his attempt at an apology came across to many as weak.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=234\">A Google engineer is facing federal charges after allegedly using his employer\u2019s confidential data to pocket $1.2 million on Polymarket<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Winters joins a long line of CEOs who just can\u2019t get the messaging around AI right. They\u2019re often too clinical or too apocalyptic; they come off as disingenuous and have been accused of \u201cAI-washing\u201d layoffs done for other reasons; or they\u2019re so tone deaf about the public\u2019s AI anxiety that they\u2019ve been booed during commencement addresses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Across the various foot-in-mouth episodes, CEOs are falling into a similar trap: They\u2019re using boardroom language to discuss the very human experience of work and job losses, and failing to recognize the full distance their messages travel, explains Sandra Sucher, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School who studies trust. \u201cWhat happens with some of these CEO announcements is that they are addressing one audience but harming their relations with another,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>The very political job of leading a company requires an agile communication style and the ability to quickly tailor language and messaging to meet the moment at hand. And here\u2019s where Winters made his first mistake, says Denise Rousseau, a professor of organizational behavior and public policy at Carnegie Mellon\u2019s Tepper School of Business. He\u2019s talking with a kind of a C-suite language,\u201d she tells <em>Fortune<\/em>. She heard Winters\u2019 language\u2014particularly the term \u201clow-valued employees\u201d\u2014as a misreading of the room: \u201cHe\u2019s talking to other CEOs, he\u2019s talking to the marketplace; he\u2019s not talking to his workers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, such language is not uncommon in the boardroom. \u201cIt makes sense to say, \u2018I\u2019m swapping this for that,\u2019 and even to refer to the fact that some jobs require higher levels of skill and therefore are of higher and lower value to the corporation,\u201d says Sucher. \u201cIt\u2019s when you port that over to the public domain that you get the kind of reaction that he did.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>CEOs also seem to be gearing talk of AI-related layoffs to investors, seeking to prove that they too are embracing the technology and already reaping the productivity gains and cost savings it promises. Sometimes that strategy pays off. In fact, after Winters made his remarks, Standard Chartered\u2019s shares rose in Hong Kong trading. But the longer-term fate of this framing is mixed: A recent analysis from CNBC found that just over half of firms that cited AI in layoffs have traded in the red since their announcements.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=230\">Warren Buffett says \u2018you\u2019re giving up your potential\u2019 if you don\u2019t have this one skill\u2014and it has nothing to do with the stock market<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Dehumanizing language can also be a psychological crutch that CEOs don\u2019t realize they\u2019re using. Sucher described the phenomenon of \u201cmoral disengagement\u201d\u2014an unconscious process in which our brains justify morally-problematic decisions while protecting our view that we are a good person. Framing a layoff as a matter of adjusting resources\u2014versus stripping a person of their livelihood\u2014can make that tough call easier to stomach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Those most affected by flubs in AI-related layoff messaging are the employees who still work at a company. Such comments can breed a sense of job insecurity among survivors, and even create a toxic workplace culture, leading to tougher recruitment, more attrition, and employees who are totally checked out, Sucher says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s actually why the profitability goes down,\u201d she says. \u201cThe big personal harm is for the people who immediately lose their jobs, but the bigger corporate harm is because of the disengagement of the people who remain behind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Good, careful, human-centric communication around AI-related layoffs or AI disruption can help retain the workers CEOs need to tackle the technological revolution that lies ahead. Buried in Winters\u2019 comments last week was a fact employees may have been happy to hear: Standard Chartered has reskilled some workers who\u2019d been displaced by a technology upgrade project in Hong Kong.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnlike a lot of other companies, [the bank] actually had a good story to tell,\u201d Sucher says. But Winters\u2019 \u201clow-value\u201d comment derailed the narrative. \u201cAll of a sudden he becomes The Guy Who Said That. The things I study are full of examples of becoming The Guy Who Said That, and it\u2019s rarely a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=228\">Ten years ago, DOJ indicted FIFA officials for racketeering. Now New York and New Jersey want answers on seats and ticket prices<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Standard Chartered&#8217;s Bill Winters is just the latest CEO to stumble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chief-executive-officer-ceo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Boos, AI-washing, and \u2018low-value human capital\u2019: The psychological traps CEOs are falling into when they botch their AI messaging - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=236\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Boos, AI-washing, and \u2018low-value human capital\u2019: The psychological traps CEOs are falling into when they botch their AI messaging - 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