Ford’s chief enterprise tech officer, Mike Amend, was in India recently to inaugurate a new tech centre in Bengaluru and he told us such centres had become critical given the impact AI and related digital technologies were having on enterprises like Ford. “AI is impacting every single part of our business,” he said.
The new office, capable of housing 350 specialists, adds to the 12,000 people Ford already has across India, a large part of it in Chennai. “There’s only so much talent available in certain markets,” Amend said. “There’s a massive talent shortage in the AI community. Everybody’s going after the same kind of resources, and we need specialised skills to stay competitive.” The Bengaluru centre is focusing on recruiting specialists in ecommerce, digital, AI, cybersecurity, and DevSecOps.
Global impact
The engineers in Fords centres don’t just support regional operations, they drive global innovation across all of Ford’s markets. “The group that is building the technology to drive automation is based here in India,” Amend said.
Teams here are spearhead ing the development of Ford’s AI Advancement Centre (AIAC) initiative, which aims to democratise AI across the company. The idea is that all business people must become AI proficient.
The Ford LLM – a suite of large language models developed significantly by Indian engineers – forms the backbone of this effort. Unlike public AI tools, Ford’s system keeps all data private.
Engineers here have also been instrumental in developing the ‘Ford AI chat toolkit,’ which allows anyone in the company to build custom AI solutions after just a day of training.
These tools have transformed how Ford’s dealer service technicians operate globally. “When a dealer encounters a problem and performs a successful repair, our system learns from that. When another technician faces the same problem, we can recommend the solution that worked previously,” Amend said. “We constantly use this repair data to make the system more intelligent, faster, and better at addressing problems.”
India-based teams are also leading Ford’s charge in using GitHub Copilot and similar tools to write safer, faster, and more secure code for vehicles. Amend said thousands of their software engineers are using these AI-assisted development tools.
Designing in seconds
Perhaps most impressive is the work Indian engineers are doing with generative AI for vehicle design. Teams in India are teaching AI to create new exterior designs, wheel rims, and optimised vehicle components.
“With generative AI, you can tell the system to create fifty different designs in seconds,” Amend said. “You can spot one you like, ask for specific modifications to the curves or features, and it happens instantly. What would take a human design er hours or days can be done in moments.”
AI is also being used for part optimisation. Engineers can ask AI models to make components lighter through design changes, material choices, or strategic cuts. The system, Amend said, can evaluate the trade-offs between weight, strength, cost, and performance automatically.
The simulation work being conducted by Indian teams is also groundbreaking. Engineers here are helping develop sophisticated computational fluid dynamics models that could eventually replace physical wind tunnel testing. Physical tests cost huge amounts of money. But Amend noted that it’s not just about cost savings, “it’s also about accelerating development cycles dramatically.” These simulations could eventually extend to crash testing.
India teams are also pioneering augmented reality solutions. Amend said Ford headsets allow a remote expert to see exactly what a technician sees when working on a complex repair. The expert can guide them through the process in real-time.
Commercial fleet solutions
The team that optimises charging management for Ford’s commercial fleets is based in Bengaluru. They determine where, when, and how fleet vehicles should charge to maximise efficiency.
“Commercial customers want more than just a vehicle,” Amend said. “They need software to manage their fleet, optimise service schedules, handle charging, and even manage insurance. They want one solution provider rather than dealing with five different companies.”
That need for consolidation is why teams in India are building what Amend called “a wholesale fintech company,” modernising Ford Credit’s systems into “cloud-native digital systems” that customers can interact with through multiple channels. “We’ve created a comprehensive digital experience with mobile apps, web interfaces, virtual assistants, and various payment methods. Customers can interact however they prefer – voice, chat, or traditional methods.”
