Key takeaways Apple has appointed Amar Subramanya as its new vice president of AI, replacing retiring executive John Giannandrea. Subramanya spent 16 years at Google, leading engineering for the Gemin...
Apple announced Monday that John Giannandrea, the company's artificial intelligence chief since 2018, is stepping down from his role and will retire in spring 2026.
The iPhone maker has named Amar Subramanya, a prominent AI researcher with extensive experience at both Google and Microsoft, as his successor.
The announcement marks a significant leadership shift for Apple's AI division as the company faces mounting criticism over its Apple Intelligence suite and delayed Siri improvements.
Giannandrea, who joined Apple from Google, where he ran Machine Intelligence and Search, will remain with the company in an advisory capacity through early next year.
Subramanya brings deep expertise from Silicon Valley's leading AI organizations. He spent 16 years at Google, where he most recently served as head of engineering for the Gemini Assistant and worked with the company's DeepMind AI unit.
He joined Microsoft as corporate vice president of AI earlier in 2025, making his tenure there less than five months before moving to Apple.
In his new role as vice president of AI, Subramanya will report to Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering.
He will oversee critical areas including Apple Foundation Models, machine learning 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," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
"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 added that Federighi "has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year."
The leadership change comes amid challenges with Apple Intelligence, the company's AI-powered feature suite launched in October 2024.
The platform has received mixed reviews from users and critics, with early features including notification summaries generating inaccurate information.
A significant Siri overhaul that Apple had promoted at its developer conference in 2024 was delayed until 2026, signaling development difficulties.
Earlier this year, Apple reportedly removed Siri from Giannandrea's direct oversight, handing responsibility to Vision Pro architect Mike Rockwell.
As part of the organizational restructuring, the remaining teams previously under Giannandrea will move under Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan and services chief Eddy Cue.
This shift integrates AI responsibilities more closely with Apple's core operations and services divisions.
Apple's approach to artificial intelligence differs markedly from competitors like Microsoft, Google, and Meta.
While rival tech giants have invested billions in AI data centers and cloud infrastructure, Apple has focused on processing AI tasks directly on users' devices using its custom Apple Silicon chips.
This privacy-first strategy avoids collecting user data but has resulted in smaller, less capable models compared to the massive systems running in competitors' data centers.
The company announced in August that it was significantly increasing AI spending. Apple has also struck partnerships with AI leaders, including a deal with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into some of its products.
Despite these efforts, analysts and investors have expressed concern that Apple has fallen behind its peers in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Subramanya's appointment represents Apple's effort to accelerate its AI development with proven leadership from organizations that have successfully shipped large-scale AI products.
His intimate knowledge of both Google's and Microsoft's AI strategies could prove valuable as Apple works to close the gap with competitors while maintaining its distinctive approach to user privacy and on-device processing.
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