Apple on Monday announced that AI chief John Giannandrea is stepping down and retiring in spring 2026. Giannandrea headed AI and Machine Learning at Apple, as well as the development of Core ML and Siri technologies.
Former corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft Amar Subramanya will take over as vice president of AI, with Giannandrea serving as an advisor between now and 2026. Subramanya will report to Apple engineering chief Craig Federighi, and will lead Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation.
Before his tenure at Microsoft, Subramanya spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Google’s Gemini Assistant. Apple says that he has “deep expertise” in both AI and ML research that will be important to “Apple’s ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features.”
“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 Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “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.”
Giannandrea’s departure comes in the wake of the iOS 18 Siri fiasco, when Apple unveiled what it called a smarter, “Apple Intelligence” version of Siri at WWDC 2024. It advertised several features of the functionality when marketing the iPhone 16, even though the features were far from being finished. In early 2025, Apple finally announced that it would not be able to release the promised version of Siri as planned, and would not be able to do so until spring 2026.
Since then, we’ve seen several members of Apple’s AI hit the exit, even as Apple scrambled to get promised features like improved app integration, personal context, and onscreen awareness ready for prime time.
