Ford Brings Back Veteran Engineers After AI Falls Short: 'It's Only As Good As The People Using It' (Update)

After turning to AI for quality control, Ford had to rehire over 300 engineers because AI couldn't match their experience.

Photo by: Ford

Jared Rosenholtz

By: Jared Rosenholtz

Updated: Jul 2, at 10:00am ET

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THE BREAKDOWN

Ford rehired 350 engineers because AI couldn't reach the desired quality checks.
Those engineers will train younger employees and AI.
Ford will still invest heavily in AI quality checks.

Update: Ford issued a statement to Motor1. The story and headline have been updated to reflect the new details provided by the automaker.

In 2023, we moved our Vehicle Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Quality teams under one organization and leader, Kumar Galhotra. This reorg allowed us to look at the entire lifecycle of a vehicle—from software development to suppliers on our plant floor—as one continuous and collaborative flow. At the same time, we have rallied the whole company around a clear vision: Quality Comes First. We’ve built a culture of relentless problem-solving and recognizing our teams when they prevent issues from reaching customers.

To help achieve our quality objectives, we use a number of tools, including artificial intelligence. AI is a powerful tool for catching potential quality issues but it’s only as good as the people using it. This is one reason why we have added through internal promotions or new talent more than 350 experienced tech specialists to work alongside newer team members. By combining AI's processing power and pattern recognition with decades of human engineering experience, we're identifying potential issues and designing quality into our vehicles from day one while teaching the next generation to prevent problems before they ever start.

After setting the record for most recalls ever in 2025, Ford needs all the help it can get in the quality control department. Perhaps that's why a new Bloomberg report claims that the automaker hired 350 veteran engineers, some of whom were former employees, after artificial intelligence was unable to meet predicted quality control levels.

"Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that would produce a high-quality product," said Charles Poon, vice president of vehicle hardware engineering. "Over prior years, we didn't pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers who have been with us through many product cycles."

This may sound like a win for the human labor force, but it may only be a temporary victory. Ford may have rehired employees who were let go in favor of using AI, and even brought on additional workers, but the company is using them as what it calls "gray beard" engineers.

The 350 workers were brought back to train younger workers and help reprogram the AI, so it can more effectively deliver the desired quality checks. In other words, Ford brought back human workers temporarily to train their own replacements.

Ford's AI Push

Ford deployed 900 AI-powered cameras to detect quality issues, and although the company is on pace to have fewer recalls in 2026, it may have more vehicles affected by the end of the year. On the bright side, Ford did rank at the top of the JD Power Initial Quality Study amongst mainstream brands, so the quality checks are clearly having some benefit.

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Company CEO Jim Farley says the rehired engineers are already "contributing to literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of a tailwind for Ford on cost." Despite this, Farley has previously admitted that "artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers."

Motor1's Take: While AI will have useful applications in the future, we believe companies should be beholden to ensure a responsible implementation as to not displace the human workforce.

More Ford News

Ford Thinks It Has A Solution To Its Recall Problem

Ford Recalls Nearly 420,000 Vehicles Over Faulty Seat Belts

Source: Bloomberg

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