The artificial intelligence wave has prompted most automakers to double down on cost-cutting measures and initiate sweeping layoffs. But the same advanced technology has become a hiccup for Ford Motor Company after it automated quality checks. The company is now backtracking rapidly — reportedly choosing to rehire hundreds of experienced human engineers while most of its rivals continue to slash their global workforces
According to a Bloomberg report, the carmaker’s vice president, Charles Poon, acknowledged that the company’s AI-driven approach towards quality checks had backfired. A CNBC report showed that after Ford hit its salaried employment peak in 2020, it has only continued to get rid of roughly 5,300 workers to reach about 30,700 white-collar employees last year.
On a call with reporters last week, he hailed AI as a “fantastic tool.” At the same time, however, he argued that the booming tech was “only as good as the information you use to train it,” as quoted by Bloomberg. “Over prior years, we didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles.”
Despite numerous hirings spanning multiple years, Ford is still committed to cost-saving goals and aims to cut a billion dollars in costs this year.
Why is Ford rehiring veteran engineers?
AI notably earned its identity as the saving grace for industry giants seeking to boost productivity and save expenses. However, in Ford’s case, the tech hasn’t been of much help when it comes to seemingly intractable quality concerns that have cost the company billions of dollars.
As a result, the American automaker adopted a different strategy by hiring 350 veteran engineers over the last three years—whom Ford calls “gray beard” employees—to help address these woes tied to quality checks where AI has failed the company, according to Bloomberg.
Employees being brought back include former employees and others from suppliers. Their goals are to train younger staff and reprogram AI tools that haven’t been useful on this front.
In its own gratifying way, Ford’s decision to bring back “gray beard” staffers has helped the human workforce earn a major point in the employee vs AI debate. At a time when even top leadership fears losing their senior roles to the rising tech, the US automaker’s hard-to-ignore move has, in a way, proved that human experience and knowledge can’t be replaced.
One might recall Ford CEO Jim Farley noting during the Aspen Ideas Festival last year that AI “is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US… AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind.”
Officials speak out as AI ‘fails’ Ford quality checks
Ford’s Indian-origin chief operating officer (COO) Kumar Galhotra said that the engineers the company has hired again were “at the heart” of the automaker’s quality assurance, as reported by Bloomberg. The returning staff members now lead mandatory meetings regarding quality problems and focus on reprogramming AI tools to prevent glitches beforehand.
“We had been relying more and more on automated quality systems” and not getting the desired results, Galhotra said. “We brought back technical specialists,” and “they hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor.”
Back in October, the COO said during an earnings call that Ford was “deploying AI across the entire industrial system.”
The big rehiring decision is already helping Ford manage costs, as CEO Jim Farley said on Bloomberg TV, “We’re seeing our warranty coverages come down. We’re seeing our recall costs come down. These are all contributing to literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of a tailwind for Ford on cost.”
Vice President Charles Poon admitted that the company “mistakenly” thought that by “just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirement that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product.” However, as quoted by Bloomberg, Poon remarked that Ford has since recognised that enhancing some of their automation, machine learning, and AI tools requires training by the “most experienced individuals.”
Rehiring experienced Ford employees works wonders
Ford officials admitted how AI had failed them as the company witnessed a soaring return to a crucial benchmark index that measures vehicle quality. Bringing back old talent has led the company to reap the benefits in real time, as Ford became the top mainstream brand in the latest JD Power Initial Quality Survey, released just days ago. The carmaker hasn’t held such a ranking since 2010.
“This is a proud day for everyone at Ford, and the result of years of intensive work across our company,” said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO, in an official press release. “Many doubted that an American company with a huge American workforce could compete with the world’s best on quality, let alone reach the top. But we put our heads down and worked together every day to deliver for our customers. Today, Ford is not only the most American automaker but also the gold standard for new vehicle quality.”
Meanwhile, Thomas King, president of OEM solutions at JD Power, said Ford not only ranked “highest among mass market brands,” but also that “the Ford F-150, Ford Mustang and Ford Super Duty ranked highest in their respective segments.”
Regardless of the undisputed hiring shift practiced by Ford, the American company, along with the other two automakers included in the iconic “Detroit Three” group, has contributed to the elimination of tens of thousands of white-collar workers, according to public filings and employment data from the companies compiled in May.
Exacerbating the AI-driven layoffs trend, General Motors, Ford and Stellantis together cut more than 20,000 US salaried jobs, or 19% of their combined workforces. On an annual basis, the combined white-collar employment for the “Detroit Three” hit an all-time high at roughly 102,000 jobs in 2022. Those figures have since fallen 13% to 88,700 people, as of the end of 2025.