AI Is Hard to Trust... Ford Motor Company Rehires 300 Quality Control Workers

[Financial News] Ford Motor Company, which had aggressively introduced artificial intelligence (AI) to cut costs and improve productivity, has rehired a large number of retired veteran engineers. The move reflects the view that AI could not fully replace the long years of hands-on experience and technical expertise on the factory floor.
On the 29th local time, TechCrunch and other foreign media reported that Ford Motor Company executives had recently rehired more than 300 former quality inspectors to fix flaws in its automation systems over the past several years.
Charles Poon, Ford Motor Company's vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, stressed the importance of field experience, saying, "AI is a fantastic tool, but it is only as useful as the quality of the information used to train it." He added, "Over the past few years, we have not given the attention we should have to the know-how of engineers who built up the deepest expertise through countless product cycles together."
Ford Motor Company has long been one of the companies pushing companywide AI adoption to maximize profitability in step with Wall Street's AI boom.
Jim Farley, Ford Motor Company's CEO, predicted in an interview last June that "AI will displace many white-collar workers." Ashwani Kumar Galhotra, the company's COO, also told investors at an earnings call last October that Ford was "deploying AI across the entire industrial system." In fact, Ford Motor Company installed 900 AI-powered cameras inside its factories to prevent quality problems at the source and ease supply chain disruptions.
However, Poon candidly admitted that the AI-based inspection system fell short of expectations. He said, "We fell into the illusion that simply introducing artificial intelligence and entering design requirements would produce the highest-quality products."
Poon pointed out that the automation tools could not keep up with the accumulated experience and expertise of veteran technicians. He also acknowledged that many skilled workers left the company before they could properly pass on their knowledge to the AI system.
Ford Motor Company will therefore bring them back to help train and improve the AI system, while also using them to educate younger employees.
According to TechCrunch, what drew attention along with Ford Motor Company's admission of AI's failure was, ironically, the dramatic improvement in vehicle quality. Ford Motor Company said it ranked first among major U.S. auto brands in J.D. Power's Initial Quality Study (IQS). It was the first time Ford Motor Company had topped the ranking in 16 years, since 2010.
This case is expected to send a strong message to Silicon Valley and the manufacturing industry, where faith in AI has led many to underestimate the value of skilled human labor.

[email protected] Yoon Jae-joon Reporter