- Apple is shaking up its Siri development team
- Mike Rockwell, the man behind Vision Pro, is taking over from John Giannandrea
- Could this be the pivotal change Apple needed to bring an upgraded Siri to market?
There’s a major shake-up at the top of the Apple food chain as Tim Cook opts for a new leader to help the company bring Apple Intelligence-powered Siri to life.
Following reports from earlier this week that Apple Intelligence would be a focal point of Apple’s off-site Top 100 exec meeting, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is now reporting that AI head John Giannandrea is no longer going to be overseeing Siri’s overhaul.
According to Gurman, “[Apple CEO] 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.”
Rockwell will now be in charge of Siri, according to Gurman’s sources, who have asked not to be named, and he’ll report directly to software chief Craig Federighi.
With Giannandrea no longer in charge of Siri, he’ll now be working on other AI projects. The decision was made during the Apple Top 100 meeting and is said to be confirmed to employees later this week.
Assuming Gruman is right, this major exec shift comes at a pivotal time for Apple – once a pioneer in the voice assistant game but now just a mere passenger – as it tries to devise a solution for Siri.
Apple had advertised its flagship iPhone 16 Pro as the best device for Apple Intelligence, yet nearly seven months after its launch, customers have yet to see the real benefits of AI.
With Apple’s Siri delay a public disaster, this shift in leadership could be the catalyst for success that’s needed to make the personal context-capable Siri a reality.
Siri’s redemption arc?
At WWDC 2024 in June, we got to hear directly from Giannandrea about his vision for the then-newly-announced Siri. He said Siri with Apple Intelligence has a “rich understanding of what’s on your device,” and that the voice assistant’s knowledge base would “only get richer over time.”
Nearly a year later, Siri still can’t tell you what month of the year it is and definitely doesn’t understand what’s on your device.
Rockwell, who can take credit for Apple’s Vision Pro development, has the potential to get Siri’s development back on track. While the mixed reality headset hasn’t necessarily been a commercial success it does achieve some incredible feats.
Tim Cook is likely counting on Rockwell’s ability to innovate, as evidenced in the Vision Pro, to make Siri as good as the company advertised back at WWDC. And, if he does, then all the naysayers will have to accept that Apple truly is back on track.
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