The Head of Apple Inc.’s AI division, John Giannandrea, has officially stepped down from his position. Although he will remain in the team in an advisory position, Giannandrea will finally exit Apple next year in spring. This comes as an aftermath of Apple’s failure to keep up with the AI race against rival tech giants Google and Microsoft.
Although Apple recently launched its very own AI titled Apple Intelligence, the company failed to make a mark in the global market. Since then, several pivotal figures have departed from the company, and John Giannandrea is yet another in name in the list.
John Giannandrea remains as Apple AI Advisor until his exit in Spring 2026
On Monday, Apple released a statement stating a big change in their AI division. As per the contents of the statement, John Giannandrea was the company’s senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy. It also mentioned that Giannandrea will remain in the company as an advisor to the team until his retirement in spring 2026.
At the same time, Apple Inc. also mentioned a detailed restructuring of the brand’s AI division. According to the statement, “The balance of Giannandrea’s organization will shift to Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue to align closer with similar organizations.”
Under Giannandrea’s leadership, Apple was able to build a “world-class” team and supported their endeavors in developing and deploying “critical AI technologies.” As per the details mentioned in the statement, the team led by Giannandrea is responsible for “Apple Foundation Models, Search and Knowledge, Machine Learning Research, and AI Infrastructure.“
A report by Bloomberg discussed in detail the challenges the former Apple AI head faced during his tenure. It said, “Under Giannandrea, Apple’s AI team struggled to catch up with Silicon Valley peers. The company arrived late to generative AI — two years after OpenAI’s ChatGPT became synonymous with the technology — and its Apple Intelligence platform was widely considered subpar. The company also had to delay a much-touted new version of its Siri voice assistant.“
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Who is next in line to lead Apple’s AI division?
The same statement issued by Apple Inc. on Monday also mentioned John Giannandrea’s successor for the company’s AI team. Apple named Amar Subramanya as the new Vice President of the team and would report to Craig Federighi, as mentioned in the statement. A renowned researcher in the field of artificial intelligence, Subramanya brings with himself nearly two decades of experience in the tech industry in an executive position.
Given his former experience as part of Microsoft and Google, Apple Inc.’s statement further mentioned, “Subramanya will be leading critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation.”
This could be a vital development for the team behind Apple Intelligence as well as the tech giant itself. Last month saw OpenAI and Google announcing their latest AI model versions, with Gemini 3 making headlines for its quality results which exceeded expectations of the developers themselves.
A major concern for Apple has been an upheaval caused by speculations regarding Apple outsourcing some of Google’s AI technology. As per another Bloomberg report, “Apple Inc. is planning to pay about $1 billion a year for an ultrapowerful 1.2 trillion parameter artificial intelligence model developed by Alphabet Inc.’s Google that would help run its long-promised overhaul of the Siri voice assistant.“
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