Apple Shuffles AI Executive Leadership, In Bid To Revive Siri

Apple Inc. is reorganising its executive leadership to address ongoing challenges in its artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, according to sources with knowledge of the matter, reported news agency Bloomberg.

The attempt to revive Siri has become urgent for Apple as the tech giant has struggled to deliver new capabilities announced in June, including features that would allow Siri to access user data to fulfil requests. 

Despite these functionalities not being ready for release, Apple continued to promote them in television advertisements for months to market the iPhone 16 line.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has decided to reassign responsibilities after becoming dissatisfied with AI head John Giannandrea's progress on product development. As part of this restructuring, Mike Rockwell, who previously led the development of the Vision Pro headset, will assume a new role overseeing the Siri virtual assistant.

Rockwell will report directly to software chief Craig Federighi, effectively removing Siri from Giannandrea's purview. Apple officially communicated these changes to staff on Thursday, after the news was reported by Bloomberg.

Response To Competition

The executive reshuffle comes at a critical time for Apple, as the company's Top 100 senior leaders recently concluded their annual confidential meeting where AI strategy was a central topic of discussion.

This leadership adjustment reflects Apple's urgent need to address its position in the AI market, where the company has notably fallen behind competitors. The Apple Intelligence platform, which was intended to be the flagship feature of the iPhone 16, has faced flak for its delayed release and limited functionality.

Apple Vision Pro Leadership Transition

In his new capacity, Rockwell will transition away from his current role as vice president of the Vision Products Group (VPG), which was responsible for developing Apple's mixed-reality headset. While the Vision Pro software teams will follow Rockwell to Federighi's software engineering division, the hardware team will remain under John Ternus's organization, reporting to Paul Meade, a hardware engineering executive with Vision Pro experience.

Siri Development Challenges

The urgency behind these changes is highlighted by recent internal discussions. Robby Walker, who has been leading Siri development, reportedly told his team that the delays were "ugly" and acknowledged that team members might feel "angry and embarrassed." Walker also expressed uncertainty about future release timelines due to competing development priorities.

Despite these internal challenges, Apple has publicly committed to delivering the promised features within the "coming year."