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June 28, 2026
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Ford rehires 'gray beard' engineers after AI falls short

Overview

"Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence ... that would produce a high-quality product. " rehires 'gray beard' engineers after AI falls short Ford executives said they have hired 350 veteran engineers - some of them were former employees, while others had been working at suppliers - after artificial intelligence and automated systems failed to deliver the desired quality level.

Key Takeaways

  • Bloomberg reports the company's chief operating officer Kumar Galhotra told journalists that Ford had been "relying more and more on automated quality systems" with disappointing results.

    So the company "brought back technical specialists," and those specialists "hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor.

  • " To be clear, this doesn't mean Ford is abandoning its AI plans entirely.

    Instead, it's using the rehired employees - referred to as "gray beard" engineers - to train younger staff and reprogram AI tools.

  • This rehiring seems to be paying off, with Ford anticipating that it will lead to $1 billion in reduced costs this year.

    The automaker also claimed the top spot among mainstream brands in the JD Power Initial Quality Survey released this week.

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  • " Charles Poon, Ford's vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, added, "Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product.

Stats & Key Facts

  • #" rehires 'gray beard' engineers after AI falls short Ford executives said they have hired 350 veteran engineers - some of them were former employees, while others had been working at suppliers - after artificial intelligence and automated systems failed to deliver the desired quality level.
  • #This rehiring seems to be paying off, with Ford anticipating that it will lead to $1 billion in reduced costs this year.

Bloomberg reports the company's chief operating officer Kumar Galhotra told journalists that Ford had been "relying more and more on automated quality systems" with disappointing results. So the company "brought back technical specialists," and those specialists "hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor. " Charles Poon, Ford's vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, added, "Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product.

" To be clear, this doesn't mean Ford is abandoning its AI plans entirely. Instead, it's using the rehired employees - referred to as "gray beard" engineers - to train younger staff and reprogram AI tools. This rehiring seems to be paying off, with Ford anticipating that it will lead to $1 billion in reduced costs this year.

For more details please read the original article at TechCrunch AI.

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