Just a day after revealed how bad Siri can be, Apple Inc. is undergoing a big shake-up of its executive ranks, hoping to get its artificial intelligence efforts back on track after months of delays and stumbles, according to people familiar with the situation. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development, so he’s bringing over another top executive to help with the Siri overhaul: Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell. In a new role, Rockwell will be in charge of the Siri virtual assistant, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the changes haven’t been announced.
Rockwell will report to software chief Craig Federighi, removing Siri completely from Giannandrea’s command. Apple announced the changes to employees on Thursday following Bloomberg News’ initial report. The iPhone maker’s senior leaders — a group known as the Top 100 — just met at a secretive, annual offsite gathering to discuss the future of the company. Its AI efforts and the Siri overhaul were important talking points at the summit, Bloomberg has reported.
The need to rescue Siri is especially urgent. The company has struggled to release new features that were announced last June, including the ability to tap into a user’s data to fulfill queries. Despite the technology not being ready, Apple advertised the enhancements for months on TV in order to sell the iPhone 16. Following snags, the company further delayed the features earlier this month. The Apple manager who has led Siri until now told his team in a recent meeting that the delays were “ugly” and that staffers may be angry and embarrassed. This highlights the demand for a comprehensive Siri overhaul.
By tapping Rockwell, Apple is betting on an executive with proven technical experience to drive the Siri overhaul. He has demonstrated the ability to ship new products and run an engineering organization with thousands of people. Rockwell has a knack for solving problems and often takes the role of evangelist for futuristic technologies. Rockwell is known as the brains behind the Vision Pro, which is considered a technical marvel but not a commercial hit. Getting the headset to market required a number of technical breakthroughs, some of which leveraged forms of artificial intelligence.