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Ford admits AI couldn't replace experienced engineers, rehiring veterans to improve quality and cut recall costs.
Jun 25, 2026 23:12 EDT
Ford recently announced that over the last three years, it's had to rehire about 350 "gray beard" engineers to mentor younger staff and reprogram diagnostic systems and AI tools that were failing to meet up to quality expectations.
The company's VP of vehicle hardware engineering, Charles Poon said that leaders overlooked the deep experience of veterans who survived many product cycles. Poon admitted that simply replacing them with AI was a huge mistake, and that while AI is "a fantastic tool," it remains "only as good as the information you use to train it."
