Stories

Mon, 29 Jun 2026

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 Ford rehires human engineers after AI fails to match quality checks

The car-maker found AI quality checks failed to match the skill of veteran technicians.

* Ford has rehired over 300 "veteran" quality inspectors who had previously left the company, after realizing that their human skills and experience were necessary to train its AI systems.
* The company's AI-driven checks failed to live up to expectations, leading executives to acknowledge that relying on technology alone was not enough.
* Ford's vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, Charles Poon, said that "artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it's only as good as the information you use to train it."
* The company has been investing heavily in AI and automation, but Poon admitted that they didn't pay enough attention to the experience of their most knowledgeable engineers.
* Ford's CEO, Jim Farley, previously said that "AI will leave a lot of white collar people behind", but now the company is acknowledging that human expertise is still essential.
* The company has also been working on improving its automation and machine learning tools by having them trained by experienced individuals.