Ford Rehires Human Engineers After AI Quality Checks Fall Short
Ford has rehired a number of human engineers after its artificial intelligence (AI) systems failed to match the skills and experience of its veteran staff.
The US automaker had implemented AI technology across various operations, including quality inspections, aiming to reduce costs and enhance productivity. However, according to Bloomberg, Ford executives revealed that the company has brought back over 300 experienced quality inspectors in recent years to address shortcomings in its automated systems.
"Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it's only as good as the information you use to train it," said Charles Poon, vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, during a press briefing.
"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," he added.
Ford is among several companies that have embraced AI amid widespread enthusiasm, particularly on Wall Street, about the technology’s potential to improve profit margins.
"AI will leave a lot of white collar people behind," Ford CEO Jim Farley stated in an interview with author Walter Isaacson in June of last year.
During an earnings call in October, Ford’s chief operating officer Kumar Galhotra explained that the company was "deploying AI across the entire industrial system." This included the installation of 900 AI-powered cameras in its manufacturing plants designed to detect quality issues at the source and help mitigate supply chain disruptions, Galhotra told investors.
Despite these efforts, Poon told reporters on Wednesday that the AI-based quality checks had not met expectations.
"Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that would produce a high-quality product," he said.
Poon pointed out that the automated tools lacked the training and expertise of veteran technicians, many of whom had left the company before their knowledge could be integrated into the AI systems.
These experienced human workers have since been rehired to both train the AI systems and mentor younger employees.
"We recognised that for us to enhance some of our automation and machine learning and artificial intelligence tools we needed to ensure that they were trained by the most experienced individuals," Poon said, according to Bloomberg.
Ford’s acknowledgment of its AI shortcomings coincided with the company celebrating its return to the top of an industry benchmark for vehicle quality.
The automaker was ranked the number one mainstream manufacturer in the US JD Power Initial Quality Study, a position it had not held since 2010.
In a press release announcing the achievement, Ford stated that "reaching best-in-class quality required a significant talent refresh." This process involved replacing senior leaders across engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing, as well as hiring approximately 300 veteran engineers "who carry the hard-earned wisdom of decades of design."
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