Ford has rehired 350 veteran engineers after the artificial intelligence and automated quality systems it was relying on failed to deliver the standards the company was aiming for.

The engineers, including former Ford employees and specialists recruited from suppliers, have been brought in to identify potential issues before parts reach the production line, according to Bloomberg.

Kumar Galhotra said: “We had been relying more and more on automated quality systems.” He added that the company had “brought back technical specialists” who “hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor.”

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.”

Ford added that the experienced engineers are not replacing AI, but are helping train younger staff and improve the company’s AI tools.

The move has contributed to lower warranty and recall costs, with chief executive Jim Farley saying the improvements had generated “hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars” in savings.