Apple Replaces AI Chief John Giannandrea with Microsoft's Amar Subramanya Amid Siri Struggles

Apple just named a new AI chief with Google and Microsoft expertise, as John Giannandrea steps down | TechCrunch

In a carefully worded announcement on Monday, Apple said John Giannandrea, who has been the company's AI chief since 2018, is "stepping down" to, well, not work at Apple anymore. He'll stick around through spring as an advisor. His replacement is Amar Subramanya, a highly regarded Microsoft executive who spent 16 years at Google, most recently leading engineering for the Gemini Assistant. It's a savvy hire, given that Subramanya knows the competition intimately. The move is being characterized as a shake-up. It was seemingly inevitable in retrospect. Apple Intelligence, the company's answer to the ChatGPT moment, has been stumbling since its October 2024 launch. Reviews have ranged from "underwhelming" to outright alarmed. Its first months were some of the roughest. A notification summary feature meant to condense multiple alerts into digestible snippets generated a series of embarrassing, untrue headlines in late 2024 and early 2025. Among other missteps, the BBC complained twice after Apple Intelligence falsely reported that Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself (he hadn't) and that a darts player, Luke Littler, won a championship before the final even began. Then there was Siri's promised overhaul, which became a black eye for Apple. A Bloomberg investigation published in May revealed the depths of Apple's AI struggles. For instance, when Craig Federighi, Apple's software chief, tested the new Siri on his own phone just weeks before its planned launch in April, he was dismayed to find that many of the features the company had been touting didn't work. The launch was delayed indefinitely, triggering class-action lawsuits from iPhone 16 buyers who'd been promised an AI-powered assistant. By that point, Giannandrea had already been sidelined, according to Bloomberg. The news organization reported that Tim Cook had stripped Siri from Giannandrea's oversight entirely back in March, handing it to Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell. Apple removed its secretive robotics division from Giannandrea's control, too. Bloomberg's investigation painted a picture of organizational dysfunction, with weak communication between AI and marketing teams, budget misalignments, and a leadership crisis severe enough that some employees had taken to mockingly calling Giannandrea's group "AI/MLess." The report also documented an exodus of AI researchers to competitors, including OpenAI, Google, and Meta. Apple is reportedly now leaning on Google's Gemini to power the next version of Siri, an astonishing and also, presumably, humbling twist considering the intense rivalry between the two companies that dates back more than 15 years, across mobile operating systems, app stores, browsers, maps, cloud services, smart home devices, and now AI. Giannandrea came to Apple from Google, where he ran Machine Intelligence and Search. At Apple, he oversaw the AI strategy, machine learning infrastructure, and Siri development. Now Subramanya inherits those responsibilities, reporting to Federighi with a clear mandate to help Apple catch up in AI. It's an interesting moment for the company. While competitors have been pouring billions of dollars into massive AI data centers, Apple has focused on processing AI tasks directly on users' devices using its custom Apple Silicon chips, a privacy-first approach that avoids collecting user data. (When more complex requests require cloud processing, Apple routes them through Private Cloud Compute, servers that promise to process data temporarily and delete it immediately.) Whether that philosophy pays off or whether it has permanently left Apple behind is an outstanding question. Apple's approach comes with clear trade-offs. Among them, on-device models are smaller and less capable than the massive models running in competitors' data centers, and Apple's reluctance to collect user data has left its researchers training models on licensed and synthetic data rather than the giant troves of real-world information that fuel its rivals' systems.

Apple AI chief steps down following Siri setbacks

Giannandrea, who joined Apple in 2018, will continue working as an advisor before retiring in the spring of 2026. In March, Apple pushed back the release of a more personalized Siri, admitting that "it's taking longer than we thought." Bloomberg later reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook had "lost confidence" in Giannandrea's ability to lead the company's AI and Siri team, leading him to put Vision Pro leader Mike Rockwell in charge. Apple says Subramanya's experience in integrating AI research into products "will be important to Apple's ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features." As part of the shift, Subramanya will report to Apple software SVP Craig Federighi. Apple expects to launch an upgraded Siri next spring, with a report from Bloomberg suggesting that the company will power some of the assistant's new features with a custom version of Google's Gemini AI model.

Apple's artificial intelligence chief is stepping down, company says

Apple's head of artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, will step down from his position, the company announced on Monday. The move is the most visible shakeup in Apple's artificial intelligence group since the company announced Apple Intelligence, its AI software suite, in 2024. Apple Intelligence, which was intended to put Apple alongside AI leaders like OpenAI and Google, has not been well-reviewed by users and critics. Earlier this year, one of its most critical aspects, a significantly improved Siri assistant, was delayed until 2026. Giannandrea will be replaced by Amar Subramanya, an AI researcher who most recently worked for Microsoft. Before that, he worked at Google's DeepMind, according to his LinkedIn profile. Subramanya will be Apple's vice president of AI, the company said, and will report to software chief Craig Federighi. Giannandrea was a senior vice president and reported to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Apple said Giannandrea would remain as an advisor until next spring. In a statement, Cook said that Federighi already played a key role in Apple's AI efforts. Federighi is Apple's top software executive. "In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar's joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year," Cook said in a statement. Subramanya will lead teams at Apple working on the company's foundation models, research, and AI safety, the company said.

Apple hires Google veteran as its new vice president of AI

Apple has tapped AI researcher Amar Subramanya, a longtime Google exec who was most recently corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, as its new VP of AI. The company also announced that current AI exec, John Giannandrea, will retire in 2026. Subramanya, who Apple describes as a "renowned AI researcher," spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Gemini. He left Google earlier this year for Microsoft. In a press release, Apple said that Subramanya will report to Craig Federighi and will "be leading critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation." It's not entirely surprising that Apple is shaking up its AI leadership. Giannandrea joined Apple in 2018 after a stint at Google that included VP of search. While his hiring was seen as a major coup for Apple at the time, the company has faced some significant setbacks since. Most notably, its failure to deliver a more personalized, AI-centric version of Siri that it previewed last year. Giannandrea, who oversaw Siri for years, has shouldered much of the blame for the delays. Bloomberg reported earlier this year that Apple CEO Tim Cook had "lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development" and put other executives in charge of Siri instead. In a statement, Cook said he was "thankful" for Giannandrea's contributions to the company and credited Federighi with pushing the revamped Siri forward. "In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar's joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year."

Apple Has Announced the Retirement and Apparent Replacement of the Guy Formerly in Charge of Siri

In a press release today, Apple announced the retirement of John Giannandrea, a former machine learning luminary who worked as Apple's senior vice president for machine learning and AI strategy starting in 2018. The move comes after Apple's most famous AI product, Siri, had developed a reputation as an embarrassing, outdated relic of the pre-ChatGPT AI era. The release also says Amar Subramanya has just been brought on as Apple's vice president of AI, apparently freshly poached from a position as corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft. Apple says he "will be important to Apple's ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features." In other words, the focus of the release is not just on Siri -- a product released about eight years before Giannandrea joined Apple. But even after Apple has taken some big AI swings with Apple Intelligence this year, you'll be forgiven if the only thing you associate with Apple and AI during Giannandrea's time with the company is Siri. Siri in the Giannandrea era has its defenders. A few days ago, YouTube tech megainfluencer Marques Brownlee uploaded a video with the title "'Siri Isn't That Bad'" in scare quotes, in which he very guardedly endorsed a commenter's view that Siri is capable, but only when users meet it where it is. And in Siri's defense, it has a solution for the kinds of general purpose LLM tasks some people have started to use AI for in their daily lives, but it only emphasizes how far behind the competition it is. Starting in iOS 18.2 almost exactly a year ago, certain Siri prompts started just getting handed over to ChatGPT. So now if you ask Siri to tell your five-year old a bedtime story about a duck, Siri will just tag in ChatGPT. That's got to be a little deflating for Giannandrea. After all, as Gizmodo's Tom McCay wrote back in 2018, Giannandrea was Google's chief of search until Apple poached him in 2018 in an effort to rapidly catch up to companies with more "effective" digital assistants like Google Assistant, or Amazon's Alexa. Seven years later, instead of besting the competition, Siri just pulls a ripcord and uses ChatGPT as a parachute. Earlier this year, it emerged that Giannandrea was no longer in charge of Siri. Then last month came the leaked story that apparently the next Siri wasn't going to be built atop Apple's own AI at all, and that Apple was going to pay Google for a new core AI model to serve as neo-Siri's main ingredient. Subramanya seems to be replacing Giannandrea even though his title is slightly different. He worked on Google Gemini during his 16 years at Google, which makes it sound as if the new Siri, when it's released, will at least have the fingerprints of Apple's current head of AI in its code somewhere. But once again, it feels like Apple is playing catch-up rather than leading in this particular space. Siri was made in an era where deterministic responses to a small set of voice commands was impressive. It has branched out to other tasks, but with Giannandrea at the helm it mostly just got noticeably outshined by more flexible chatbot-based assistants. It looks like soon, Siri will finally be able to perform those open-ended LLM tasks that Apple never really tackled during the Giannandrea regime, and Subramanya will be able to take credit. But assuming Siri catches up to the 2026 standard for voice assistants, how long will that feel good enough? Giannandrea's retirement will take effect in spring of next year, Apple's release says.

John Giannandrea leaving Apple following AI strategy miss - 9to5Mac

Apple has announced that John Giannandrea, the company's Machine Learning and AI Strategy boss, is retiring from the company. The move may not come as a surprise for anyone closely following Apple and its AI missteps over the last few years. Here's the news from the official press release: Apple today announced John Giannandrea, Apple's senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, is stepping down from his position and will serve as an advisor to the company before retiring in the spring of 2026. Apple also announced that renowned AI researcher Amar Subramanya has joined Apple as vice president of AI, reporting to Craig Federighi. Subramanya will be leading critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation. The balance of Giannandrea's organization will shift to Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue to align closer with similar organizations. As noted above, Amar Subramanya is joining Apple to take over as VP of AI under Craig Federighi. Subramanya comes by way of Microsoft AI and like Giannandrea, is a former Googler.

Apple AI chief John Giannandrea is stepping down

Apple has formally announced that John Giannandrea, its Senior VP of Machine Learning and AI, is stepping down from his position. He will serve as an advisor to the company before retiring in the spring of 2026. Giannandrea will not be directly replaced by a Senior VP role, but by a Vice President: Amar Subramanya. Subramanya was at Google for 16 years and made a name for himself as a prominent AI researcher. Just this summer, he joined Microsoft as Corporate VP of AI. Now, after just six months, he's joining Apple. Subramanya was a principal member of the team that created Gemini (released in 2023) and Imagen 3 at Google. In other words, after OpenAI caught the industry off guard with ChatGPT, he appears to have been instrumental in helping Google catch up. Now, he's at Apple, where the same work is desperately needed. Subramanya will report to Senior VP of Software Engineering Craig Frederighi. He will be responsible for leading Apple's efforts in Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation. Most of those who worked under Giannandrea's group will now report to Eddy Cue, the Senior VP of Services. Giannandrea was brought into Apple from Google back in 2018, when Apple's biggest AI effort was the ill-fated Apple Car project. He and his team have been responsible for many of the advancements Apple has made in the field of AI and ML, but he is perhaps also to blame for Siri-Apple's most visible and important AI product-falling far behind the state of the art. Apple's press release reads as though Giannandrea will step back from his role right away, staying on to advise during the transition, and will fully retire in the spring of 2026, which is when we expect Apple's next-gen Siri to be released. That gives Apple several months to get this new AI organization in place and its leadership running well by the time it introduces the new Siri to over a billion users.

Apple's AI chief steps down after string of setbacks

John Giannandrea to be replaced by Amar Subramanya as firm lags behind rivals in releasing generative AI features Apple's head of artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, is stepping down from the company. The move comes as the Silicon Valley giant has lagged behind its competitors in rolling out generative AI features, in particular its voice assistant Siri. Apple made the announcement on Monday, thanking Giannandrea for his seven-year tenure at the company. Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, said his fellow executive helped the company "in building and advancing our AI work" and allowing Apple to "continue to innovate". Giannandrea will be replaced by longtime AI researcher Amar Subramanya. Apple debuted its marquee AI product suite, Apple Intelligence, in June 2024, but has been slow to overhaul its products with generative AI in comparison to competitors such as Google. Apple has added incremental features, such as real-time language translation in its new AirPod earphones, a feature Google's headphones added in 2017, and a fitness app that uses an AI-generated voice for chats during workouts, but major changes are still in the works. The company has teased an AI-forward upgrade to Siri for more than a year, but the rollout has repeatedly been postponed. "This work [on Siri] needed more time to reach our high-quality bar," Craig Federighi, Apple's vice-president of software engineering, said during the company's developer conference in June. In an earnings call the next month, Cook said Apple was "making good progress on a more personalized Siri" and promised a release next year. With the appointment of Subramanya, Apple seems to be indicating a tighter focus on the company's AI strategy. Subramanya previously worked as the corporate vice-president of AI for Microsoft and also spent 16 years at Google, where he was the head of engineering for its Gemini AI Assistant, seen as a leader in the industry. He will report to Craig Federighi, Apple's head of engineering, who has also taken on a bigger role working on AI at the company in recent years. Cook said on Monday that Federighi "has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year". In its announcement, Apple wrote that this is a "new chapter" for the company as it "strengthens its commitment" to AI.

AppleInsider.com

Apple has announced that senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, John Giannandrea, is retiring and being replaced by Amar Subramanya, formerly a Microsoft AI executive. After months of internal reorganizing and speculation around Giannandrea's fate at Apple, the news has finally broken about Apple's plans for its AI group. First, John Giannandrea will step down from his position and serve in an advisory role until the spring of 2026. He will then retire fully from Apple, leaving Amar Subramanya in his place, though the role is changing slightly. Subramanya will be under Craig Federighi as vice president of AI. The new title suggests a more specialized and focused role on the development of Apple Intelligence and other artificial intelligence integrations. Federighi, of course, is the senior vice president of Software Engineering and oversees much of the AI work already. Apple says the balance of Giannandrea's organization will shift to Sabih Khan, COO, and Eddy Cue, SVP of Services, to align with similar organizations. Subramanya will be placed over Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation. "We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users," said Apple CEO Tim Cook. "AI has long been central to Apple's strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig's leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple." "In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar's joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year." Subramanya is joining Apple from Microsoft, where he served as corporate vice president of AI. He had previously spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Google Gemini.

Apple's AI chief abruptly steps down

John Giannandrea, senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy at Apple Inc., during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at Apple Park campus in Cupertino, Calif., on June 10, 2024.David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images file Apple's top artificial intelligence executive is stepping down and will retire from the company in 2026, the company announced Monday. John Giannandrea had been at Apple since 2018, where his official title was senior vice president for machine learning and AI strategy. He will be replaced by Amar Subramanya, who comes to Apple after a brief stint as corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft and more than a decade at Google. Subramanya will report to one of CEO Tim Cook's deputies, Craig Federighi, rather than to Cook directly as Giannandrea had. "AI has long been central to Apple's strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig's leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple," Cook said Monday. The abrupt change at a company known for its careful succession planning highlights Apple's challenge as it tries to compete with top AI developers such as Google, ChatGPT owner OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft. Earlier this year, Apple delayed the release of an upgraded version of Siri with AI powered features. At the time, the company said it was going to "take us longer than we thought" to develop the new version. The company said it anticipated rolling out new features "in the coming year," but it has not offered any more specifics. "We're making good progress on it and, as we've shared, we expect to release it next year," Cook said on the company's quarterly earnings call in late October. "With Apple Intelligence, we've introduced dozens of new features that are powerful, intuitive, private and deeply integrated into the things people do every day," Cook said on the Oct. 30 call The company is now targeting spring of 2026 for the release of the upgraded Siri, Bloomberg News recently reported. While Apple's iOS and macOS are currently integrated with ChatGPT, those features are somewhat limited. In recent weeks, Apple has reportedly neared deals to integrate with Google's Gemini, as well as AI models from Perplexity and Anthropic. Apple's stock has also felt the effect of what some perceive to be it's lagging AI services. This year, Apple shares have returned 13%, which tops both Amazon and Microsoft. But shares of Oracle have popped 20%, Nvidia has surged 34% and Google parent company Alphabet has soared 65%. Still, Apple remains the world's second largest publicly traded company, with a market value of $4.2 trillion, behind only Nvidia.

Who is Amar Subramanya? Ex-Google and Microsoft AI researcher now leading Apple's AI push

Amar Subramanya: Apple has appointed AI veteran Amar Subramanya as its new VP of AI, succeeding John Giannandrea who retires in 2026. Subramanya, formerly of Microsoft and Google, will lead key AI initiatives. This move follows Apple's recent AI development challenges, including delays with its personalized Siri. Subramanya's expertise is expected to bolster Apple's AI efforts. Apple has appointed Amar Subramanya, a veteran AI researcher with long stints at Google and Microsoft, as its new vice president of AI. The announcement comes as Apple confirmed that its current AI chief, John Giannandrea, will retire in 2026. Subramanya, described by Apple as a "renowned AI researcher," most recently served as corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft. Before that, he spent 16 years at Google, where he rose to head of engineering for Gemini. In a press release, Apple said Subramanya will report to Craig Federighi and will "be leading critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation." The leadership change follows years of internal challenges for Apple's AI push. Giannandrea, who joined Apple in 2018 after serving as Google's VP of search, was initially seen as a key hire to help the company compete in the rapidly advancing AI landscape. However, Apple has struggled to keep pace, most notably with delayed rollout plans for its next-generation, more personalized version of Siri, the AI-centric assistant it previewed last year. Giannandrea, who oversaw Siri's development, has faced scrutiny over the setbacks. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook had "lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development" and shifted leadership responsibilities for Siri to other executives. Amar Subramanya is an established AI researcher and engineering leader whose career spans some of the world's most influential technology companies. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has held key roles at Microsoft and previously worked within Google's DeepMind division, one of the industry's most prominent hubs for cutting-edge artificial intelligence research. Subramanya holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical, Electronics, and Communication Engineering from Bangalore University (1997-2001). He later completed a PhD at the University of Washington between 2005 and 2009. At Apple, Subramanya steps into the role of Vice President of AI, reporting directly to Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering.

Apple Tosses Its AI Czar To The Curb For A Microsoft Exec

It seems the overhaul of Apple's AI team is not done yet. In what is its biggest AI-related shakeup so far, the Cupertino giant has announced a replacement for its AI chief, John Giannandrea. Apple has just announced that the head of its AI efforts, John Giannandrea, is departing the company. Giannandrea will be replaced by Microsoft's AI researcher, Amar Subramanya, who will lead Apple's AI efforts as a VP under Craig Federighi. Tim Cook said in a statement: "In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar's joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year." We reported in early November that Apple is planning to use a gigantic, albeit tailored, Gemini AI model to power its upcoming revamped Siri. With 1.2 trillion parameters under its belt, the customized Gemini model would "dwarf" the 1.5 billion-parameter, bespoke AI model that Apple currently uses to power Siri in the cloud. What's more, Apple will reportedly pay Google around $1 billion per year to use Google's proprietary AI technology, forming merely the latest tranche in the ongoing transactional relationship between the two tech giants. After all, Google already pays Apple $20 billion per year for ensuring default search engine privileges within the Safari browser and across other Apple services. Meanwhile, Apple appears to be bleeding talent left, right, and center, and not just in the highly competitive AI space. In fact, the tech giant's core iPhone design team is also bleeding talent to Jony Ive's io, which was recently acquired by OpenAI in its quest for an "iPhone Killer" device, to be packaged in a screenless, pocket-sized form factor. According to Gurman, OpenAI has hired around 40 Apple engineers in the last month or so alone! Some of these prominent hires from Apple include Matt Theobald, a manufacturing design expert, and Cyrus Daniel Irani, the lead on human interface design. This comes as Abidur Chowdhury, the designer of the iPhone Air and a rising star within Apple, has also left his cushy job with the Cupertino giant to pursue a stint at an unnamed AI startup.

Apple Reshapes AI Leadership As Longtime Chief John Giannandrea Steps Down - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:APPL) announced a major leadership transition within its artificial intelligence group, marking the most significant reshuffle since launching its Apple Intelligence platform in 2024. * AAPL shares are testing new highs. See what the experts say here. According to an Apple press release, John Giannandrea -- the senior vice president overseeing Machine Learning and AI Strategy since 2018 -- will step down from his role and move into an advisory position before retiring in spring 2026. During his tenure, Giannandrea built Apple's modern AI organization, leading teams responsible for Apple Foundation Models, search and knowledge systems, machine-learning research and core AI infrastructure. See Also: Jim Cramer Says Oracle Doesn't 'Live Or Die' On OpenAI Apple has hired AI researcher Amar Subramanya as its new vice president of AI. Subramanya, who will report to Software Chief Craig Federighi, most recently served as corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft and previously spent 16 years at Google, where he led engineering for the company's Gemini Assistant. Apple said Subramanya will play a key role in advancing foundation models, ML research and AI safety and evaluation. Other portions of Giannandrea's organization will be redistributed under Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan and Services head Eddy Cue to better align with similar company divisions. The leadership change arrives during a period of intense scrutiny over Apple's position in the AI race, said CNBC. While Apple Intelligence was designed to compete with platforms from OpenAI, Google and Microsoft, the suite has received mixed reviews from users and critics. One of its most anticipated features -- the revamped Siri -- experienced a significant delay, reinforcing concerns that Apple is lagging behind peers investing heavily in frontier models, data centers, and cloud-based AI infrastructure. The broader industry landscape is also shifting around Apple. In 2025, Jony Ive -- the designer behind the iPhone -- sold his startup to OpenAI for $6.4 billion. Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed they have already prototyped AI-centric hardware that could be revealed within two years. Analysts say such developments signal a coming wave of AI-first consumer devices, challenging Apple's long-held dominance in hardware design and customer loyalty. Photo: Andrey-Bayda via Shutterstock Read Next: * OpenAI Device Prototype Is 'Simple And Beautiful And Playful,' Sam Altman Says AAPLApple Inc$283.01-0.03%Overview This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Apple Revamps AI Leadership Amid Siri Delays | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. Apple said Giannandrea will shift into an advisory role before retiring in spring 2026. Subramanya will report to software chief Craig Federighi and oversee Apple Foundation Models, machine learning research and AI safety and evaluation, while the rest of Giannandrea's organization moves under operations head Sabih Khan and services leader Eddy Cue. Subramanya is a former Microsoft AI leader and longtime Google engineer who helped build the Gemini Assistant. Apple said his track record turning research into products will be central to future Apple Intelligence capabilities and a more personalized Siri expected next year. "AI has long been central to Apple's strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig's leadership team," Tim Cook said in the announcement. The reshuffle underscores how urgently Apple is rebuilding its AI stack as generative AI becomes the operating system for consumer engagement, from shopping to payments and digital banking. PYMNTS coverage over the past 18 months has cataloged the missteps this new team must fix. Apple delayed key Apple Intelligence features for iOS and iPadOS to avoid shipping unstable code. Early releases drew criticism for inaccurate AI-generated news alerts and message summaries, prompting Apple to pull the feature and sparking media warnings about the risk to information integrity. Engineering troubles have also slowed a next-generation Siri that is supposed to anchor Apple Intelligence and power new commerce and retail experiences, with reports of bugs, delays and internal reshuffles to fix the assistant. Most recently, PYMNTS reported that Apple is nearing a $1 billion-a-year deal to tap Google's more powerful model to upgrade Siri -- a stopgap while it races to close its capability gap in-house. Taken together, those story lines make today's elevation of Subramanya -- and Federighi's broader remit over Apple's foundation models -- a high-stakes bet that Apple can turn AI from a PR problem into a competitive weapon across its devices, services and payments ecosystem.

Apple names Amar Subramanya new VP of AI, replacing John Giannandrea

Dec 1 (Reuters) - Apple on Monday named veteran researcher Amar Subramanya as its vice president of AI, replacing John Giannandrea. Apple -- a laggard in the AI race -- has been slow to add AI features to its products in comparison to rivals such as Samsung Electronics, which have been quicker to refresh their devices with AI features. Subramanya will lead critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research and will report to software chief Craig Federighi. He is joining Apple from Microsoft, where he most recently served as corporate vice president of AI. Previously, Subramanya spent 16 years at Google, where he was, among other roles, the head of engineering for the Gemini assistant. Giannandrea will serve as an adviser to Apple until his retirement in spring next year. Earlier this year, Apple said that artificial intelligence improvements to its voice assistant Siri would be delayed until 2026. There have been reports of Apple CEO Tim Cook losing confidence in AI head Giannandrea's ability to execute on product development. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Alan Barona)