Apple CEO John Ternus urged Apple senior VP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi to speed up the corporate timeline and move past routine Siri upgrades, as outlined by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter.
Ternus is frustrated by what he views as a laggard approach toward adopting AI compared to rivals. He pushed Federighi for changes in a meeting behind closed doors, according to Gurman, who cited anonymous sources.
Concerns surrounding privacy, security, societal impact, and employment have previously led to Federighi being viewed as doubtful regarding artificial intelligence.
The introduction of iOS 27 brought an AI transformation to Siri that finally delivered on multiple commitments Apple originally made in 2024. Yet, it remains more limited than rival systems, lacking the ability to carry out lengthy agentic tasks in the background.
Next year, Mike Rockwell might step down from his position as vice president of Siri engineering or depart from Apple completely. Gurman reports that Rockwell headed up development of the Vision Pro headset before taking over the Siri AI reins.
Rockwell has reportedly been grumpy about not getting enough credit for fixing Apple’s digital assistant. Management of his Siri AI responsibilities could potentially transfer to Sebastien Marineau, an associate of Federighi, and Amar Subramanya, a Google veteran brought on last year to bolster Apple’s artificial intelligence initiatives, should Rockwell depart.
Apple is updating its software development process across its major platforms’ next major OS updates, adjusting development cycles to allow more time for coding, exploration, and feature development. Employees say they like the change, indicating that it creates more time for coming up with ideas before needing to lock things in.
Gurman points to a recent earnings call in which Ternus called agentic AI capabilities promising. Will accelerating the schedule to integrate these concepts into Apple operating systems simply result in increased software glitches for everyday users?
