Ford is turning its cars into rolling AI companions.
At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, the company laid out a plan to weave an AI assistant through its Ford and Lincoln lineups, starting in apps this year and in new vehicles from 2027.
An assistant that follows you from phone to car
Doug Field, Ford's chief EV, design, and digital officer, says the goal is a smarter, more personal in-car experience.
'Our vision for the customer is simple, but not elementary: a seamless layer of intelligence that travels with you between your phone and your vehicle,' Field wrote in a blog post Ford shared ahead of time.
He stressed that Ford is not trying to build a generic chatbot:
'Not generic intelligence â many people can do that better than we can. What customers need is intelligence that understands where you are, what you are doing, and what your vehicle is capable of, and then makes the next decision simpler.'
One example: snap a photo of something you want to haul, upload it to the assistant, and it can tell you whether it will fit in your truck bed.
Rollout starts on your phone, then moves into the dash
Ford will launch the AI assistant first inside its Ford and Lincoln smartphone apps, with rollout expected to begin early 2026.
From 2027, the assistant becomes a native in-car feature as new or refreshed models gain the hardware to support it. Ford hints it could show up first in the affordable electric truck the company says is due next year, and then in large gasoline vehicles like the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator.
Those vehicles will not just get an AI assistant; they will also be part of Ford's push into software-defined vehicles.
A new central brain: High Performance Compute Center
Like the rest of the industry, Ford is ditching dozens of separate electronic control units in favor of a handful of powerful central computers.
At CES, the company showed off what it calls its High Performance Compute Center. Designed in-house, this unit runs infotainment, advanced driver assistance systems, audio, and networking.
Ford says the new computer is cheaper than the outgoing electronics stack, uses half the volume, and delivers much better performance.
Paul Costa, executive director of electronics platforms at Ford, says the shift ties into a new Universal Electric Vehicle (UEV) architecture:
'Our upcoming Universal Electric Vehicle (UEV) architecture incorporates a fivefold increase for the in-house module design, giving us 5X more control over critical semiconductors.'
More control over chips and software is exactly what automakers want as cars start to look more like computers on wheels.
Cheaper, smarter hands free driving
More compute power also lets Ford push its driver assistance systems harder.
Field says a new generation of BlueCruise, Ford's hands free highway assist, will debut next year with significantly more capability at a 30 percent lower cost.
Further out, Ford plans to launch a so called level 3 driver assist in 2028. In certain situations, like heavy highway traffic, drivers could hand over situational awareness completely to the system, rather than just taking their hands off the wheel.
That would be a step up from most current systems, which still require drivers to watch the road even when the car is doing the bulk of the work.
From mass production to mass personalization
Ford built its business on mass producing identical vehicles. Now it wants those vehicles to feel tailored to each driver.
By tying an AI assistant to software defined vehicles and centralized computing, Ford is betting it can sell not just cars, but an evolving digital experience that travels with you from phone to vehicle and back again.
Whether drivers want an AI riding shotgun every day is still an open question. But Ford clearly does not want to miss the moment when cars start talking back.
