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Ford rehired 350 engineers because AI could not reach the desired quality checks.
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Those engineers will train young employees and AI.
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Ford will still invest heavily in AI quality checks.
After setting a record for the most car recalls ever in 2025, Ford needs all the help it can get in the quality control department. maybe that’s why a new bloomberg The report claims that the automaker hired 350 experienced engineers, some of whom were former employees, after artificial intelligence was unable to meet anticipated quality control levels.
“Mistakenly, we thought that simply introducing artificial intelligence and meeting the design requirements we had would result in a high-quality product,” said Charles Poon, vice president of vehicle hardware engineering. “Over the years, we haven’t paid as much attention as we should to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers, who have been with us through multiple product cycles.”
This may seem like a victory 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 employees, but the company is using them as “gray beard” engineers.
350 employees were brought back to help train younger workers and reprogram the AI so it could more effectively provide the desired quality checks. In other words, Ford brought back human workers temporarily to train its own replacements.
Ford’s AI push
Ford has deployed 900 AI-powered cameras to detect quality issues, and although the company is on pace to have fewer recalls in 2026, more of its vehicles could be affected by the end of the year. On the plus side, Ford ranked top among mainstream brands in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, so the quality scrutiny is clearly paying off.
Company CEO Jim Farley says the rehired engineers are already “contributing hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to Ford.” Despite this, Farley has previously acknowledged that “artificial intelligence will replace virtually half of all white-collar workers.”
Motor1’s Opinion: While AI will have useful applications in the future, we believe companies should be grateful to ensure a responsible implementation so that the human workforce is not displaced.
