In the past year, Ford’s Gil Gur-Arie – chief data and analytics officer – led his Global Data Insight & Analytics (GDI&A) team to accelerate its big data capability by designing a new system that leverages Google’s cloud and AI expertise to better structure and analyze data. This system is now being built, and it will create more meaningful insights that help us enhance quality, create distinctive new features and services, and transform customer experiences into an “always-on” relationship led by regular Ford Power-Up software updates. The team also is democratizing advanced data analysis capability across the company by empowering employees to customize artificial intelligence and machine learning automation tools for their businesses, increasing AI powered solutions five-fold in the first six months of 2021 alone.

Prior to joining Ford, Gur-Arie ran a large team of soldiers and officers in the Israeli military for 20 years using big data and AI in the fields of cybersecurity, homeland security, counter-terrorism and intelligence tech capabilities. Upon arriving at Ford, he was actually surprised to see how much overlap there was between his experience in counterterrorism and the automotive industry. He is most excited about working at Ford because his team works with all sorts of data: audio, video, geolocation, you name it! This goes well beyond connected vehicle data as we look for ways to fuse data from inside and outside Ford to create the most meaningful insights. He also was surprised how Ford already was using all big data disciplines – from AI and ML to computer vision – to modernize the company, improve manufacturing processes and innovate for products and customers.

After more than a year at Ford, he is quite impressed at how modernized the company has become as it transforms into a software-led operation. His team has more than a thousand data scientists, data engineers and software developers.  And they are using cutting-edge technology, like AI that can be used by many of our teams to better analyze data coming from vehicles, plants and outside Ford as we look to make our customers’ lives better.