Ford was ranked No. 1 among mainstream automakers in J.D. Power's initial quality study, marking the first time in 16 years the company has achieved this position. Ford currently leads the industry in the number of vehicle recalls, and the company's quality ratings have slipped over the past several years.

To address these issues, Ford hired, promoted, or brought back more than 350 experienced engineers. These engineers were tasked with rebuilding institutional expertise, guiding younger engineers, and improving data collection and AI training. Charles Poon, Ford's vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, said, "Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and adjusting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product."

Poon also said, "That's where some of our most experienced engineers have had experience solving and identifying those problems before they creep into the system." Ford created a dedicated 40-person software quality assurance team responsible for preventing problems before they occur. Kumar Galhotra, Ford's chief operating officer, said, "We're moving from that find-and-fix mentality to preventing issues before they occur."

The company integrated its software and digital teams more closely with vehicle engineering, manufacturing, and supply-chain teams. Ford added more than 100,000 new AI-powered tests designed to identify edge cases and stress software systems. Poon said, "Because these tests are highly automated, even if we have a late change in the software, we can rapidly run back through the entire validation process to guarantee it works perfectly well before it reaches the customer."