Apple Replaces Siri Leadership

It’s a changing of the guard in Cupertino. Mike Rockwell, the new head of engineering for Apple’s Siri virtual assistant, is replacing much of the leadership team with executives from his Vision Pro software group, according to a Bloomberg News report.

The changes come as Apple grapples with an aging and relatively incapable Siri. I Photo: Daniel L. Lu (user:dllu)

Rockwell is also reportedly restructuring the teams responsible for performance, speech, understanding, and user experience.

The changes come as Apple grapples with an aging and relatively incapable Siri. The assistant debuted in 2011, two years before Amazon’s Alexa, and both are now under pressure to keep up with more advanced AI chatbots.

What’s more, Apple centered the marketing for its latest iPhone 16 around the Apple Intelligence suite of AI-driven features — in which Siri plays a key role — but those features failed to impress and were beset by delays.

Rockwell was handed his new responsibilities last month, replacing AI chief John Giannandrea and former Siri boss Robby Walker.

The Vision Pro execs now tasked with revamping Siri reportedly include Ranjit Desai (platform), Olivier Gutknecht (experience), Nate Begeman (architecture), Tom Duffy (architecture), Stuart Bowers (understanding), and David Winarsky (voice).