MW Apple reportedly shuffles AI execs, but it may have a larger problem than 'Siri-gate'

By Therese Poletti

Delay of Siri AI's features 'only adds insult to injury,' one analyst says

Apple Inc. is reportedly moving around executives in the wake of its problems with Apple Intelligence and Siri, but the latest product snafu could be sign of a larger problem with the consumer electronics giant.

According to a Bloomberg report Thursday, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has "lost confidence" in the ability of his AI chief, John Giannandrea, to execute on product development, and has named Mike Rockwell to lead Siri development. Rockwell, who will report to software head Craig Federighi, was the creator of Apple's expensive mixed-reality headset, Vision Pro, which has yet to become a commercial success. Giannandrea will remain in charge of overall AI development, Bloomberg reported.

Apple $(AAPL)$ officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The latest executive shuffle comes after last week's news that Apple is delaying the highly anticipated personalized AI-driven features in Siri, its voice assistant for the iPhone.

Well-known Apple blogger John Gruber said last week that, though they were not ready for prime time, Apple had promoted Siri's personalized AI features at its developer conference last June, at the September iPhone 16 launch and again in TV ads.

In a rare scathing post called "Something's Rotten in Cupertino," Gruber, who has been covering Apple for 20 years, said that the more personalized Siri features that Apple has talked about on three separate occasions do not even exist yet, and Apple has not demonstrated them to the press except in a concept video.

"That level is called vaporware," Gruber wrote.

Also read: Apple now faces a problem far bigger than tariffs or weak iPhone sales.

But a few analysts noted that Siri's voice-activated-assistant rivals from Amazon $(AMZN)$ and Alphabet's $(GOOG)$ $(GOOGL)$ Google have also had their share of technical problems.

"Siri has been Apple's albatross for quite a while now - it has always promised so much and delivered so little," said Dipanjan Chatterjee, a Forrester Research analyst, in an email, adding that the main voice assistants have all stumbled clumsily along. "However, the GenAI-fueled chatbots have demonstrated what excellent voice interaction can be like, and there is no place for Siri to hide anymore. The recent delay in Siri's AI enhancements only adds insult to injury."

Ben Reitzes, a Melius Research analyst, said in a note to clients earlier this week that he does not know many people under 65 who use Siri. "Dad, you can just talk to apps like ChatGPT on your phone - and speaking into a phone is embarrassing anyway," he said his daughters told him, but he added that they also would not want to give up their iPhones.

But "Siri-gate" does raise questions about the state of innovation at Apple, and going one step further, raises questions about innovation under Cook. Since Cook took the reins as CEO in 2011 from Steve Jobs, Apple has had some struggles with new product innovation, from its reportedly costly research on an Apple electric car, to the Vision Pro and now with AI. Chatterjee said that the Vision Pro is Apple's probe into the not-too-distant future, and was not designed for high-volume, mass-market sales.

Still, "You have to give Tim Cook his due," said Chatterjee. "Most pundits predicted an Apple crash in a post-Jobs world, but Cook has held the company together, maintained its emotional core, engaged its loyalists and achieved significant financial success."

Reitzes said in his note that he believes Apple is working on a new form factor that would replace the iPhone Plus that will come out this September. "Then in fiscal 2026, we expect foldables to begin to make it into the lineup, which could be priced at a 30%-40% premium to higher-end models."

Chatterjee acknowledged, however, that for Apple the "next big thing is still on the horizon," adding that most of its recent innovations have been incremental. "The company is searching for a similar bend in the trajectory of the future that the iPhone created," he said. "But we'll have to wait for that."

-Therese Poletti

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March 20, 2025 18:16 ET (22:16 GMT)

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