Apple's decision to delay the Personalized Siri experience until next year has created a bit of a frenzy inside the company. According to a new report, Tim Cook “has lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development.” The company is now aiming to shake up its executive team, and Mike Rockwell, the creator of the Vision Pro, will take over the remains of Siri.
Apple shakes up AI strategy, taps Vision Pro creator to lead Siri overhaul after backlash over delayed personalized features
Apple promised to release its Personalized Siri experience with iOS 18.4, but due to technical challenges and only up to 80 percent of the success margins, it saw fit to postpone the feature altogether until next year. The company has received severe backlash after its decision, which has made Tim Cook lose confidence in the current Siri team led by John Giannandrea.
Mike Rockwell, the current vice president of the Vision Products Group and creator of the Vision Pro headset, will take over the Siri team, possibly to fuel the snail growth of the company's virtual assistant. Take note that Giannandrea will not leave the company but will simply be removed from the Siri division. The executive will still oversee research, testing, and other AI-related technologies. Mike Rockwell, on the flip side, will directly respond to Apple's software chief, Craig Federighi.
The latest report from Bloomberg also claims that Giannandrea "long considered Rockwell a potential successor." Other than Rockwell, Mark Gurman also claimed that another senior executive will move to the Siri group.
In the past several days, Apple started moving over another senior manager from Rockwell’s team — Aimee Nugent — to the Siri group. Like Vorrath, she has a reputation for fixing challenging projects. The changes allowed two of Rockwell’s trusted executives to evaluate the organization before he became heavily involved.
Inside Apple, Rockwell hasn’t been shy about criticizing Siri, according to people familiar with the matter. For years, he has pitched senior vice presidents on ideas for overhauling the voice assistant to make it more personalized. He has also been advising the AI group in recent weeks.
Even though the Vision Pro did not sell well, based on recent reports and numbers, Mike Rockwell did achieve major milestones in the technical development of the headset. The company recently opened the doors for the Vision Pro headset to feature Apple Intelligence, and the analyst believes that Rockwell can bring great improvements to Siri.
With Rockwell gone from the division, Paul Meade will take over the Vision Pro team. Meade previously led hardware engineering for the headset and worked under Rockwell. Siri has always been a problem child for Apple, as it has never been able to beat the competition. With the likes of ChatGPT and Gemini out and about in the market, Apple is only facing troubles with its virtual assistant. It remains to be seen how Rockwell will lift Siri out of the position it is currently in and when we can see the improvements. We will share more details on the subject, so be sure to stick around.
