Apple’s AI Chief Changes, John Giannandrea Leaves the Company for Good

John Giannandrea’s tenure at Apple’s Cupertino offices is officially coming to a close in these mid-April days.

Appointed in 2018, after spending eight full years at Google, the executive had been chosen by the leadership to steer Apple’s complex strategy around machine learning and artificial intelligence.

However, as management had already announced in December last year, his primary operational role had run its course, transforming into a temporary advisory position set to last until the spring of 2026.

Apple changes AI Chief, is this time for good?

According to the well-known journalist Mark Gurman in his regular weekly Power On newsletter, this transition period will end exactly this week.

The timing of the separation is not by chance: the definitive exit coincides with April 15, key day for the vesting of the company’s shares.

In Silicon Valley financial and tech jargon, this practice is defined as “resting and vesting“, indicating a phase in which a high-ranking executive remains formally on the payroll solely to unlock their next stock incentive package before severing all formal ties with the company.

Reasons for the separation and the new managerial setup

Behind this prolonged exit from the stage lies a deep reorganization of the internal divisions dedicated to artificial intelligence, sparked by the criticisms that emerged with the initial debut of the Apple Intelligence system.

The first real signals of a progressive erosion of authority date back to March 2025, when Giannandrea was stripped of direct control of the team dedicated to developing the voice assistant Siri. According to rumors circulating in corporate circles, CEO Tim Cook had already lost total confidence in the executive’s ability to execute and manage the actual development of technological products.

Consequently, the company had to rush to fix things by radically changing the command structure. The entire operational management of Siri was entrusted to Mike Rockwell, while the remaining heavy responsibilities previously under Giannandrea were redistributed among veteran leadership figures, namely Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue and Sabih Khan.

This new managerial setup also saw another high-profile addition: concurrently with Giannandrea’s stepping back, the company officially announced the hiring of Amar Subramanya as vice president of artificial intelligence.

Subramanya, who will operate under the direct supervision of Craig Federighi, boasts a resume of absolute distinction, built through 16 years of work at Google and a subsequent 5-month stint in Microsoft laboratories.

The executive’s future and Cupertino’s imminent challenges

As Giannandrea prepares to begin a new chapter in his professional career, which will include joining the boards of several companies and various strategic consulting activities for startups, Apple is already looking closely at near-term milestones.

In a matter of weeks, precisely in two months, at the annual developers conference WWDC, the California company will unveil to the public significant new AI features and Siri enhancements, which will be included in the upcoming iOS 27.

These software implementations will represent the first real proving ground for the entire department under the new and exclusive supervision of Federighi.

The June event will also carry crucial significance on the industrial front, as it will tangibly demonstrate the effects of the massive deal signed with rival Google for the use of the Gemini language models.