Apple’s AI reset and Giannandrea exit

Apple is reshuffling its artificial intelligence leadership again, with longtime executive John Giannandrea leaving Apple this week after his role was cut back. (macrumors.com) Apple said on December 1, 2025 that Giannandrea was stepping down as senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, moving into an advisory role before retiring in spring 2026. In the same announcement, Apple said Amar Subramanya would become vice president of artificial intelligence and report to software chief Craig Federighi. (apple.com) Bloomberg reported in March 2025 that Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook had lost confidence in Giannandrea’s product execution and moved Siri to Mike Rockwell, the executive who led Vision Pro. That change pulled Siri fully out of Giannandrea’s chain of command and put Rockwell under Federighi. (bloomberg.com) The backdrop is Apple’s uneven rollout of Apple Intelligence, the company’s generative artificial intelligence system for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that it introduced at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10, 2024. Apple said the system would use personal context and app actions to make Siri more useful across devices. (apple.com) By March 7, 2025, Apple said some of those Siri upgrades would slip to 2026, including the more personalized version that could understand a user’s context and act across apps. Apple said at the time that the features were taking longer than expected to ship. (cnbc.com) Now Apple is pairing the management reset with new hardware tests. Bloomberg reported on April 12, 2026 that the company is actively testing display-free smart glasses in at least four frame styles, with different materials, colors, and fit options under review. (bloomberg.com) Those glasses are described as display-free, meaning they would work more like camera-and-audio eyewear than augmented reality goggles that place graphics in front of your eyes. Bloomberg also reported that Apple is experimenting with camera layouts, including vertically oriented oval lenses with surrounding lights. (bloomberg.com) That would put Apple closer to the category Meta already sells through Ray-Ban smart glasses, while staying short of the heavier augmented reality approach used in Vision Pro. CNET, citing the same Bloomberg report, said Apple is testing multiple styles partly to find a version people will actually wear. (cnet.com) Giannandrea joined Apple from Google in 2018 to lead machine learning and artificial intelligence, and his final departure appears tied to an April 15, 2026 stock vesting date cited in multiple reports. Apple has not publicly framed the move as a firing, and its formal position remains that he is retiring after an advisory period. (apple.com) (macrumors.com) The result is a cleaner structure around Federighi and Rockwell just as Apple tries to turn delayed software promises into products people can buy and wear. Giannandrea’s exit closes an eight-year run that began with Siri and machine learning and ends with Apple betting its next artificial intelligence push on execution. (bloomberg.com)