Ford plans to launch an AI assistant to help drivers with everyday problems.
Ford announced Wednesday that it will roll out the first chapter of its new AI assistant to customers through the Ford mobile app in the first half of this year.
According to a Ford press release, the assistant is touted as “deep, personalized intelligence that recognizes your specific vehicle, understands your unique needs and anticipates your desires on every journey.”
Sammy Omari, Ford's head of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), told Business Insider that the quickest way to bring AI agents to the company's customer base is through the Ford and Lincoln mobile app, which many customers already use.
Omari said the next step will be in 2027.
“And in 2027, we're actually going to bring that to the fleet and extend it across our fleet,” he said.
Omari said Ford has no intention of developing its own LLM for AI assistants.
“We're not trying to compete directly with Google or OpenAI or Meta, but what we're doing is taking the LLM that's available and essentially making it our own by giving us access to all the relevant information about that person's vehicle,” he said.
California-based EV maker Rivian announced a similar AI assistant for its cars in December.
The company announced that it will introduce a “next generation voice interface” to first- and second-generation R1 vehicles in early 2026.
A demonstration of the AI assistant seen by Business Insider showed it could understand commands uttered in natural language, such as, “Can you make it a little colder for everyone on the plane?”
Ford's announcement comes amid a slew of hot news in the auto industry at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026, an annual technology trade show held in Las Vegas.
Amazon-backed robotaxi company Zoox gave a live demonstration during the conference. Uber has unveiled its first robotaxi design, created in collaboration with Lucid and self-driving startup Nuro.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also announced Alpamayo, a new open AI model for self-driving cars.
