The automaker has become a case study in AI hubris, bringing back 350 “gray-bearded” engineers to teach its automated quality systems to build cars that don’t suck.
Antuan Goodwin Senior Editor, Electrified Cars
Antuan started in the auto industry the old-fashioned way, turning wrenches in a driveway and collecting speeding tickets. He now has nearly 20 years of expertise and experience behind the wheel of hundreds of cars, including electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, hydrogen and traditional combustion vehicles. For each car he tests, Antuan drives more than 200 miles and evaluates the driving dynamics; acceleration and braking performance; range; and efficiency. Antuan’s goal is to use his extensive automotive knowledge to educate CNET readers and help them with their next automotive purchasing decision. Whether you’re curious about electric vehicles, passionate about electric vehicles, or loyal to combustion cars, Antuan will bring you the unbiased advice, reviews, best lists and news you need. You can reach Antuan at antuan.goodwin@cnet.com
Skill Nearly two decades of testing, driving, reporting, writing, reviewing and editing content about electric and ICE cars. The category focuses on Electrified Cars, EVs, HEVs, PHEVs, ICE Cars, EV Infrastructure, EV Chargers, EV Adapters, EV News, Automotive Credentials
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At a conference last year, Ford CEO Jim Farley said that artificial intelligence “is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the United States.” Just last week, Ford executives said the automaker had quietly rehired more than 350 of what it internally calls “greybeard” engineers over the past three years to help fix AI quality control systems that weren’t doing the job.
Over the past decade, U.S. automakers have cut more than 20,000 jobs, a nearly 20% reduction in workforce between Ford, General Motors and Stellantis combined. While Ford hasn’t said for sure how many of these gray-bearded rehires were originally laid off to make way for AI and how many are simply returning retirees, Farley’s recent statements about automation-fueled worker replacement certainly paint a delicate picture.
Representatives for Ford and the United Auto Workers union did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Not getting the results you want
“Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but its value depends on the information you use to train it,” Charles Poon, vice president of vehicle hardware engineering at Ford, said last week. “Mistakenly, we thought that by simply introducing artificial intelligence and incorporating the design requirements we had, it would produce a high-quality product.”
Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s chief operating officer, was even more blunt about the realities of AI in manufacturing, saying Ford was “relying more and more on automated quality systems and not getting the results we wanted.”
More than just a whiff, automation issues have cost Ford billions in warranty costs and recalls. A study by iSeeCars, an automotive market and research company, ranked late-model Fords among the most recalled vehicles in the industry. Ford’s statements and rehiring of experienced workers are essentially an admission that moving too quickly to AI was a big mistake.
Many large companies in almost every area of technology and manufacturing have cited artificial intelligence as an excuse for significant workforce reductions, often without fully considering what is lost when that human factor disappears. Entire industries have grappled with the uncomfortable numbers of replacing human judgment with automated systems, with some even reversing their decisions when the true cost of AI proves too high.
Ford CEO Jim Farley has spoken candidly about how AI technology will lead to a drastic reduction in white-collar jobs.
FordWhat is happening now?
Last week, Ford announced that, for the first time in 16 years, it had landed the top spot among mainstream brands in JD Power’s 2026 Initial Quality Survey, up from tenth last year. The automaker attributes the increase, in part, to the contributions of rehired graybeards. But before you get excited about the triumph of these modern-day John Henrys over the machines destined to replace them, remember what ultimately happened to this folk hero: he was replaced by the steam engine anyway.
Galhotra said the rehired specialists – some former Ford employees, others from industry suppliers – were called back specifically to “hunt for failure points before a part reaches the factory.”
Ford is not abandoning AI. Instead, returning graybeards are doing two things: training younger staff who have never worked alongside these veterans, and helping rebuild the data pipelines that AI tools run on.
Essentially, they were brought back to repair and train the automated software systems that replaced them. Ford also said it has built a dedicated software quality assurance team of 40 people and added more than 100,000 AI-based automated tests to detect edge cases late in development.
Technology advances.
Ford learned the lesson hard enough to become a case study, but I don’t think it will be the last. There aren’t always graybeards to call on to save the day.