GM Turns to AI to Speed Up Car Design as Automakers Race Against China
General Motors is using artificial intelligence to compress months of design work into days, a shift that reflects how quickly the Detroit automaker must move to compete globally. What once required multiple teams and months to transform a concept sketch into a photorealistic animation now takes a single designer less than a day.
Bryan Styles, GM's director of design innovations and technology, said the company needs a coordinated strategy around AI or risk falling behind. "We've found that it's coming so fast that if we don't have a shared philosophy and strategy for how to leverage AI, that we'll simply be inundated by the coming wave and be left behind," he said.
From Clay to Code
The design process starts the same way it always has: with a sketch. But after that, AI tools take over tasks that previously required specialized teams.
Dan Shapiro, an exterior vehicle designer at GM, said the speed gain is substantial. "Years ago, going from a sketch to a really photorealistic 3D animation like this would have taken multiple teams - including design, sculpting and visualisation - several months to do. Now by using AI tools, a video like this can be done by a single designer in less than a day."
The aerodynamic testing phase also benefits. Scott Parrish, a lab manager at GM Research and Development, described the traditional cycle: designers sculpt models, engineers test them for drag, and if they fail targets, the model goes back for tweaking. "These are those handoffs that cost us a lot of time and money," he said.
GM is building in-house tools to make this nearly digital. Rene Strauss, who heads GM's virtual engineering program, said instant feedback replaces what once took two weeks. "Imagine a digital sculptor sitting next to an aerodynamicist and exercising these models to get instant results," he said.
Competitors Follow the Same Path
Ford and Stellantis are moving in the same direction. Stellantis partnered with Microsoft in April to deploy AI across sales, customer care, and operations, including tools for product development and faster digital feature deployment. Ford dealers use an AI-powered training platform, and Ford Pro recently launched an AI chatbot for fleet management.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said the stakes are high. "It's an arms race. It's going to be a differentiating factor for the Big Three, especially with the global competition."
The Job Question Remains Unresolved
The United Auto Workers has raised concerns about job losses as AI and robots take on work humans once performed. GM's Styles said the goal is to "augment and accelerate, versus replace" workers - a statement likely to face scrutiny as AI tools spread.
Gus Faucher, a senior economist at PNC Bank, framed AI as a productivity multiplier. "That means that each individual autoworker is producing more output, and yes, that causes job losses. But it also means higher living standards over time as we have more productive workers."
UAW President Shawn Fain disagreed with that framing. "Greedy corporate power brokers today want us to believe that killing millions of jobs in the name of AI will be a good thing," he said at a rally last month. "The working class knows better."
Ives said the actual impact remains uncertain. "The jury's still out in terms of if it's going to be a huge negative impact or potentially positive to employment. It all depends on robotics and how quickly it could help from a manufacturing perspective. It's an opportunity, but it's also a potential risk for autoworkers."
For product development teams, the shift is already underway. AI for Product Development and AI Design Courses are becoming relevant skills as automakers embed these tools into their workflows.
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