Ford Recalls 300 Veteran Engineers as AI Quality Control Falls Short

U.S. automaker Ford has brought back retired veteran engineers after its AI automation system failed to meet expected quality standards.

Foreign media outlets, including Bloomberg, reported that Ford management has rehired over 300 former quality inspectors in recent years to address flaws in its automated systems.

These individuals, consisting of former Ford employees and personnel who worked for partner companies, have been tasked with training Ford’s younger staff and reprogramming AI tools.

Ford Chief Operating Officer (COO) Kumar Galhotra reportedly told reporters, "We were relying more and more on automated quality systems, and the results were disappointing."

Charles Poon, Ford's executive director of vehicle hardware engineering, added, "We had this illusion that we could just plug in artificial intelligence and put in our design requirements and we would get a high-quality product."

Ford has been considered a leading company that pushed for company-wide AI adoption to maximize profitability.

However, these automated tools could not keep up with the accumulated experience and expertise of veteran technicians. Ford admitted that many technicians left the company before properly transferring their necessary knowledge to the AI system, and the company is now attempting to rectify this.

Bloomberg referred to them as "gray beard" engineers, and this rehiring of veterans appears to be already yielding results.

Ford CEO Jim Farley mentioned that warranty and recall costs have recently decreased, stating, "This is acting as a hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars effect in terms of cost savings for Ford."

Reported by Kim Taewon | Video by Ryu Jisoo | Graphics by Yang Hyemin | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.