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Apple today announced that John Giannandrea, Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, will step down from his role and transition to an advisory position before retiring in spring 2026.
Giannandrea, who joined Apple in 2018 after leading machine learning efforts at Google, has been instrumental in building the company’s AI and machine learning organization from the ground up. Under his leadership, Apple developed its Apple Foundation Models, advanced Siri capabilities, and laid the groundwork for Apple Intelligence features.
Succeeding him is Amar Subramanya, a prominent AI researcher and engineering leader, who joins Apple as Vice President of AI. Subramanya will report directly to Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, and will oversee Apple Foundation Models, machine learning research, and AI safety and evaluation.
Subramanya most recently served as Corporate Vice President of AI at Microsoft. Prior to that, he spent 16 years at Google, where he led engineering for the Gemini Assistant and played a key role in integrating advanced AI into consumer products.
As part of the restructuring, the remaining parts of Giannandrea’s organization will report to Sabih Khan (Senior Vice President of Operations) and Eddy Cue (Senior Vice President of Services) to better align AI infrastructure and applied technologies with their respective domains.
“John has been a driving force behind Apple’s AI strategy and built an extraordinary team,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re deeply grateful for his contributions. At the same time, we’re thrilled to welcome Amar, whose proven expertise in both foundational AI research and shipping world-class consumer experiences will help accelerate the next chapter of Apple Intelligence.”
The leadership changes come as Apple prepares to roll out a significantly more capable and personalized version of Siri in 2026, powered by its own large language models and on-device processing.
With Giannandrea’s foundational work complete and Subramanya now steering research and development, Apple signals a renewed push to close the gap with competitors in generative AI while maintaining its emphasis on privacy, performance, and seamless integration across its ecosystem.
