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Ford Rehires 350 Engineers to Retrain AI Quality Tools While Reporting $11.1 Billion Quarterly Loss
The automaker brought back veteran staff over three years to improve defect detection systems. It reached the top spot in a major quality ranking while reporting a large quarterly loss.
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com reported. The move forms part of an effort to reduce costs by $1 billion in 2026. Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, said artificial intelligence is only as good as the information used to train it.
He added that in prior years the company had not paid enough attention to the experience of its most knowledgeable engineers who had worked through many product cycles. The company reached the No. 1 ranking among mainstream brands in the 2026 J.D.
Power Initial Quality Study, its best result in 16 years. In 2023 Ford placed its Vehicle Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Quality teams under one organization led by Kumar Galhotra. Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s chief operating officer, said the company had been relying more on automated quality systems and brought back technical specialists who hunt for failure points before a part reaches the plant floor.
The automaker also added more than 350 experienced tech specialists to work alongside newer team members. Ford recalled roughly 20 million vehicles in the past year and projects $1 billion in warranty and material spending for 2026. Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley said the changes are producing hundreds of millions of dollars in savings on repairs and recalls.
Ford reported an $11.1 billion net loss for the fourth quarter of 2026, its largest quarterly loss in roughly 17 years. The loss stemmed largely from electric vehicle division results, tariff impacts, and a fire at an aluminum supplier.
