After publicly admitting that Apple Intelligence’s most important feature would be delayed indefinitely, Apple had to shake up Siri’s leadership. Now, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reports that AI head John Giannedrea will no longer be responsible for Apple’s personal assistant, as this role will be passed to Mike Rockwell, the Vision Pro creator.
Gurman writes: “Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development, so he’s moving over another top executive to help: Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell. In the new role, Rockwell will be in charge of the Siri virtual assistant, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the moves haven’t been announced.”
Even with this shake-up, Apple is not planning to fire any top executives, as Giannandrea is one of the most important Apple employees and possibly Cook’s successor. Still, the company’s CEO believes Rockwell might do a better job at handling Siri and interfacing with software chief Craig Federighi.
Cook’s choice to give Siri leadership to Rockwell is an interesting one. He’s the VP of the Vision Products Group, which hasn’t been very successful so far. With lackluster sales and few new features for Apple Vision Pro, he doesn’t jump off the page as the best fit to fix Siri.
Still, Gurman says the Vision Pro is considered a “technical marvel but not a commercial hit.” The journalist continues: “Over the last decade, Rockwell has been one of the few Apple executives to take a major hardware device from ‘zero to one.’”
With this change, Apple now calls Vision Pro an “AI product,” as Mike Rockwell will be responsible for that division, which includes the spatial computer and the company’s personal assistant. He’ll have to act fast to revamp Siri, though, especially now that every major player is moving forward with far more capable chatbots.
