Ford Rehires 300 Engineers After Replacing Them With AI

It appears humans still have the edge over AI.

For now at least.

Ford has announced it has rehired nearly 300 engineers after initially letting them go after replacing them with AI.

The decision by Ford to rehire the engineers comes after its AI system was unable to perform well while conducting quality checks.

BBC had more details to report on Ford’s latest move:

Ford says it has hired back some human engineers after AI failed to match their skills and experience.

In a bid to reap the benefits of the tech, which developers claim can cut costs and boost productivity, the US carmaker adopted it across some parts of its operations including for quality checks.

But, according to Bloomberg, its executives said the firm has rehired more than 300 “veteran” quality inspectors in recent years to make up for the pitfalls of automated systems.

“Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it’s only as good as the information you use to train it,” Charles Poon, vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, told reporters.

“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 said.

The US automaker is among many to have seized on the buzz around AI, particularly amid Wall Street fervour about the tech’s potential to increase margins.

We are going to see a lot of companies give up on AI and start rehiring staff like Ford

— Michael (@TheMG3D) June 29, 2026

Previously Ford CEO Jim Farley made an eerie warning regarding AI replacing white collar workers.

Forbes covered Farley’s prediction:

Ford CEO Jim Farley did something unprecedented last week. He said what CEOs behind closed doors have been discussing for months — that half of America’s white-collar workers are obsolete. “AI is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers,” he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

No hedge. No “but new jobs will emerge.” Just the truth.

You can only imagine the conversations CEOs are having in closed-door meetings mapping out exactly which roles disappear first. They’ve run the numbers. They’ve seen the demos. They’ve already decided who stays and who goes. The only thing that changed last week is that another executive finally started saying it publicly.

JPMorgan’s Marianne Lake, the CEO of its Consumer & Community Banking and a member of the JPMorganChase Operating Committee, recently told investors that she could see headcount in operations dropping by 10% in the coming years as the bank implemented new AI tools. Amazon’s Andy Jassy called it “once-in-a-lifetime” technology that will shrink their corporate workforce. Anthropic’s CEO went further , predicting 20% unemployment within five years.