- John Giannandrea, senior vice president of Apple ML and AI strategy, retires in spring 2026
- Amar Subramanya named replacement to lead revamped Siri with Craig Federighi
- Subramanya spent six months as Microsoft’s CVP AI and almost six years working on Gemini/Bard for Google
Apple announced that Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and AI Strategy John Giannandrea will step down after nearly eight years in the role.
Giannandrea will remain an advisor until spring 2026, when he will be replaced by Amar Subramanya, who will become the company’s vice president of AI, reporting to Craig Federighi.
With this change, Subramanya will lead the Apple Foundation’s models, ML and AI security research and evaluation.
Apple’s VP of AI/ML to retire in 2026
Apple thanked Giannandrea for building a “world-class team” and developing and deploying “critical AI technologies.”
It’s not confirmed whether the change is in response to industry pressure, but Apple has certainly received its fair share of criticism for falling behind the competition in AI.
Part of Apple’s slowness can be explained by its preference for on-device processing rather than cloud-based systems. Private Cloud Compute fills this gap, but the Cupertino giant also struck a deal with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri. Rumors of a similar deal with Google have also been circulating online in recent weeks.
Federighi has already played an important role in evolving Apple’s AI strategy, including working on a more personalized Siri, although this has already been delayed until 2026.
Subramanya has a wealth of experience, coming from a role as VP of AI at Microsoft and 16 years at Google, where he also led AI products like Gemini.
“AI has long been at the core of Apple’s strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig’s leadership team and bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple,” said CEO Tim Cook.
Apple says the changes will help it “continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible.” Apple shares rose about 1.6% following the announcement.
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