Apple said on Monday that senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, John Giannandrea, will step down from his role and retire in the spring of 2026. He will serve as an advisor to the company during the transition period. Giannandrea’s remaining organization will be redistributed to executives Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue to align with similar operational areas.
The move marks a major leadership shift for Apple’s artificial intelligence roadmap, which has become central to the company’s long-term strategy. Since joining Apple in 2018, Giannandrea has overseen Apple Foundation Models, Search and Knowledge, Machine Learning Research and AI Infrastructure. His efforts helped build what Apple described as a “world-class team” focused on deploying critical AI technologies across its products.
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Amar Subramanya, a longtime AI researcher, has joined Apple as vice president of AI and will report to senior vice president Craig Federighi. Subramanya will lead Apple Foundation Models, machine learning research and AI safety and evaluation. He previously served as corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft and spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for the Gemini Assistant.
Chief executive Tim Cook expressed appreciation for Giannandrea’s contributions and confidence in the incoming leadership team. “We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users,” Cook said. He added that Apple is “pleased to welcome Amar to Craig’s leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple.”
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Apple said the leadership transitions position the company to accelerate development of intelligent and personalized experiences, including a more advanced version of Siri expected next year. The company stated that the combined expertise of Giannandrea, Federighi and Subramanya would support its commitment to “shaping the future of AI for users everywhere.”
Source: Apple