Apple’s head of artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, is stepping down after a seven-year tenure, the company announced on Monday. The move comes as the Silicon Valley giant has struggled to keep pace with competitors in rolling out generative AI features, particularly its voice assistant Siri.
Giannandrea will be replaced by Amar Subramanya, a longtime AI researcher who previously served as corporate vice-president of AI at Microsoft and spent 16 years at Google, where he led engineering for the Gemini AI assistant. Subramanya will report to Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice-president of software engineering, who has taken on a larger role in AI efforts.
Apple debuted its marquee AI product suite, Apple Intelligence, in June 2024, but has been slow to overhaul products with generative AI compared to rivals like Google. Incremental features have been added, such as real-time language translation in new AirPod earphones—a feature Google’s headphones offered in 2017—and a fitness app with an AI-generated voice for workout chats. However, major changes remain in development.
An AI-forward upgrade to Siri has been teased for over a year but repeatedly postponed. “This work needed more time to reach our high-quality bar,” Federighi said at Apple’s developer conference in June. In an earnings call the following month, CEO Tim Cook promised a more personalised Siri release next year.
Cook thanked Giannandrea for “building and advancing our AI work” and said Federighi “has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalised Siri to users next year.” Apple described the leadership change as a “new chapter” that strengthens its commitment to AI.
