Ford has been forced into a major strategy shift after admitting its heavy reliance on artificial intelligence was a costly mistake.
In a major reversal, the American car giant has rehired around 350 veteran engineers in the last few years to help fix production issues and improve the quality of its vehicles that was once overseen by AI.
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“Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it’s only as good as the information you use to train it,” Ford vice president of vehicle hardware engineering Charles Poon said to Bloomberg.
“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.”
Ford now says those experienced engineers are playing a critical role in spotting problems before they reach the production line.
According to Ford’s chief operating officer, Kumar Galhotra, the newly recruited engineers are “at the heart” of Ford’s efforts to turn around quality problems.
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“We brought back technical specialists and they hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor.”
As a result, they are reportedly holding mandatory meetings to closely monitor AI tools and prevent glitches before they occur.
But the strategy shift follows what the company described as hard lessons about the limits of AI.
“Free from daily production schedules, these engineers now act as internal auditors, running mandatory weekly design reviews to hunt for and eliminate potential failure points before blueprints ever reach the factory floor,” Ford said in a statement.
Ford CEO Jim Farley confirmed to Bloomberg TV the change has helped improve the company’s financial performance, with warranty claims and recall costs beginning to fall, saving millions.
These are all contributing to literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of a tailwind for Ford on cost,” Mr Farley said.
The company aims to slash $1 billion in costs by the end of the year, with executives crediting the return of experienced engineers as a key reason for the turnaround.
The improvement is also showing up in independent quality rankings.
In last year’s J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, which measures problems experienced during the first three months of ownership, Ford ranked 10th among mainstream brands and finished below the industry average.
This year, Ford was the most improved brand in the survey, climbing to third overall behind luxury marques Porsche and Genesis.
Despite the progress, Ford still has work to do.
The company remains America’s most recalled carmaker and has warned it expects about $1 billion in warranty and material costs this year.
Ford isn’t immune to recalls in Australia either.
The car giant has seen multiple recall notices for its vehicles, with the Ford Transit Custom and F-150 receiving the latest recall notices to owners.
“Owners of affected vehicles will be contacted by Ford in writing requesting they contact their authorised Ford Dealer,” the notices state.