Ford executives said the automaker has hired 350 experienced engineers, including former employees and specialists recruited from supplier companies, after artificial intelligence and automated quality control systems failed to meet the company’s quality expectations.

Ford’s Chief Operating Officer, Kumar Galhotra, said the company had increasingly relied on automated quality systems, but the results fell short of expectations,according to Bloomberg.

He explained that Ford responded by bringing back technical specialists who identify potential defects before parts reach the production line, helping to improve product quality.

Ford’s vice president of vehicle hardware engineering,
Charles Poon said, “Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product.”

However, Ford stressed that it is not abandoning its artificial intelligence strategy.

Instead, the company is using the rehired veteran employees—often referred to as “gray beard” engineers—to mentor younger engineers while helping retrain and refine its AI systems to improve quality control.

The decision to rehire experienced engineers appears to be yielding positive results. Ford Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley said the move has helped reduce warranty claims and recall costs, generating what he described as “hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars” in cost savings for the company.