Apple has made a sharp leadership pivot in its AI department, bringing in Amar Subramanya to replace outgoing chief John Giannandrea.

Apple AI shift signals deeper urgency

John Giannandrea’s departure from the role of Senior Vice President marks the end of an era. He’ll remain on board as an advisor until spring 2026, but the real baton has already passed. Subramanya now holds the reins over Apple Foundation Models, machine learning research, and AI safety. The company didn’t say much about why the change happened, but it doesn’t take a neural net to read between the lines.

Apple AI is now under a Google and Microsoft alum

Subramanya isn’t a stranger to AI warfare. He spent over a decade and a half at Google, where he helped shape the Gemini Assistant. Then came a high-profile move to Microsoft, where he served as corporate vice president in the AI division. Now, he’s heading into Apple with both the résumé and the battlefield experience to take on its lagging AI ambitions.

This isn’t just a title shuffle. It’s a calculated response to mounting pressure. Apple’s AI efforts branded “Apple Intelligence” have consistently fallen behind expectations, both internally and on the global stage.

Apple AI features have missed their mark

It suite promised a smarter Siri, task automation, and natural language-driven interactions. Yet, most of those features are still vapor. Key tools like predictive scheduling and assistant-driven reminders haven’t materialized. In response, Apple has quietly toned down the marketing around them.

Critics have pointed out what Apple Intelligence lacks:

• No real-time conversational memory
• Limited cross-app integration
• Missing context switching between tasks
• No multi-modal input features
• Absence of live translation or summarization

Even longtime fans are starting to ask: where’s the intelligence?

Needs more than patience

Tim Cook tried to reassure skeptics. He credited Giannandrea for laying Apple’s AI foundation and praised Subramanya’s arrival as a boost to the team led by Craig Federighi. But sentiment alone won’t solve the feature gap.

Meanwhile, rivals aren’t slowing down. Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot are pushing AI assistants into daily use. If Apple can’t catch up and fast, it risks becoming the hardware company in an AI-first world.

It gets a second wind or a final warning

Subramanya now faces the daunting task of rewriting Apple’s AI story. With a legacy of overpromising and underdelivering, his appointment feels like both a restart and a reckoning. Either the tech catches up or users move on.