CES 2026: Ford Is Launching Its Own AI Assistant
Listen up, Ford drivers: You're getting a new AI assistant this year. During a decidedly low-key CES keynote, the company announced Ford AI Assistant, a new AI-powered bot coming to Ford customers in the early half of 2026. While the company has plans to integrate the assistant into Ford vehicles directly, that isn't how you'll first experience this new AI. Instead, Ford is rolling out Ford AI Assistant to an upgraded version of its Ford app first, and plans on shipping cars with the assistant built-in sometime in 2027. In effect, Ford has added a proprietary version of ChatGPT or Gemini to its app. How Ford AI Assistant works Ford's idea here is to offer users a smart assistant experience directly tied to their Ford vehicle. In one example, the company suggests a customer could visit a hardware store looking to buy mulch. Said customer could take a photo of a pile of bags of mulch, and ask the assistant "how many bags can I fit in the bed of my truck?" Ford...