Apple officially announces: Replacement of AI Director

Early Tuesday morning Beijing time, Apple announced that John Giannandrea, Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Strategy, will be stepping down from his current position. He will continue as an advisor until his retirement next spring.

This position will be filled by Amar Subramanya, a veteran Google executive with 16 years of experience who recently moved to Microsoft six months ago.

Giannandrea has held this position since joining Apple in 2018, and this personnel change has attracted particular attention given the company's lackluster performance in the AI field.

The announcement stated that Giannandrea will continue in an advisory role until his full retirement, but the handover to Subramanya is effective immediately. Subramanya, as Vice President of AI, will report to Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering. It's also worth noting that the Siri project is currently led by Mike Rockwell, who also reports to Federighi.

This shift comes as experts have repeatedly warned this year that Apple has fallen behind its tech peers in artificial intelligence. Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, tech giants have been relentlessly pursuing a foothold in this field, while Apple's presence has been somewhat lackluster.

Initially, Apple Intelligence was positioned to rival AI leaders like OpenAI and Google, but unfortunately, it hasn't received favorable reviews. Earlier this year, one of Apple's most crucial initiatives—a significantly improved Siri assistant—was delayed until 2026, indicating development challenges.

Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that Federighi played a key role in Apple's AI efforts.

The statement said, “We are incredibly grateful for John’s role in building and advancing our AI efforts, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich our users’ lives. AI has always been at the heart of Apple’s strategy, and we are delighted to welcome Amal to Craig’s leadership team and bring his exceptional AI expertise to Apple.”

“In addition to strengthening our leadership team and taking on more AI responsibilities with Amal joining us, Craig has also played a key role in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our efforts to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year,” Cook added.

It is understood that Subramaniam will lead the Apple Foundation’s teams on models, research, and AI security. Apple stated that the other teams previously led by Gyanandarea will be led by Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan and Head of Services Eddy Cue.

Despite Apple’s stock price rising 16% in 2025, it still lags behind many other large tech companies, as investors believe the iPhone maker has fallen behind its peers who have invested billions of dollars in AI data centers, chips, and cutting-edge models.

In August, Apple stated it was "significantly increasing" its investment in artificial intelligence, a technology Tim Cook described as "esoteric." Apple has already partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Apple products such as Siri.

However, Apple's approach differs from companies like Microsoft, Google, and Meta. It invests far less in technological infrastructure. Apple also wants its AI to run on its own devices, rather than communicating with more powerful computers in the cloud.