Ford rehires 350 engineers after AI fails to preserve expertise or train juniors

Ford Motor Co. took an unusually human approach to fixing its stubborn quality problems: It brought back what it calls “gray beard” engineers to help train younger staff and to reprogram the artificial intelligence tools that weren’t getting the job done.

Over the last three years, Ford says it has hired 350 veteran engineers, many of them former employees and others from suppliers, to help address seemingly intractable quality woes that have cost the automaker billions. The result: Ford is the top mainstream brand in the latest JD Power Initial Quality Survey, released Thursday.