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After "ugly" delays push back important new features for Siri, Apple shakes up the assistant's team

By Alan Friedman

Published: Mar 20, 2025, 1:38 PM

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Siri's name is spelled out in different shades of color surrounded by apple devices.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple's underwhelming attempt to catch up to Google, Microsoft, and other rivals in the white-hot AI space is causing an executive-level shake-up in Cupertino. Apple Intelligence, the tech giant's AI initiative, has not been a success. A recent survey revealed that 73% of iPhone users found that Apple Intelligence had "little to no value" even as Apple continues to heavily promote the feature with its latest iPhone models.

Apple had originally hoped to greatly improve Siri with the release of iOS 18.4

Even worse, for many iPhone users hoping to see digital assistant Siri add new capabilities, an update in iOS 18.4 was supposed to allow Siri to know what was on the user's screen providing additional context for the assistant to respond to questions with more in-depth answers. Additionally, it was hoped that the iOS update would launch a new feature that would allow Siri to browse iPhone users' email and text messages to answer questions such as, "What time am I supposed to pick up my mom from the airport?" and "Where and what time is our dinner reservation this Friday night?"

With Apple Intelligence, iPhone users can agree to have Siri turn to ChatGPT to answers queries that stump the digital assistant. | Image credit-PhoneArena

Apple even created an advertisement for what is being called "Personal" Siri back in September. The ad showed off "Personal" Siri's ability to recall the name of a person that an iPhone user had met at a cafe weeks before. With the updates earmarked for Siri now delayed "indefinitely," Apple has since pulled the spot.

Siri is also expected to be integrated deeper with various native apps allowing users to schedule appointments and have them added to the calendar app. Siri might also be able to create notes and have them filed correctly thanks to this deep integration with Apple's own apps. The tech giant could also provide third-party app developers with APIs allowing them to include Siri's new capabilities with their own apps.

Today's report states that Apple CEO Tim Cook has lost confidence in Apple's AI chief John Giannandrea's ability to get things done. So Cook has gone to the mound to signal the bullpen to bring in a reliever. Mike Rockwell, creator of the Vision Pro spatial computer is now in charge of Siri according to those in the know. Because Apple has yet to announce this move, the sources requested anonymity.

You might be thinking, why bring in someone related to a device that isn't selling all that well to light a fire under the Siri team? The answer is pretty simple. For all of the talk about being a "flop," the technology used in Apple's mixed reality headset is actually quite impressive. Rockwell probably isn't associated inside Apple with the low sales which has much to do with the high $3,500 price of the device.

Siri's new capabilities will arrive "in the coming year"

Rockwell's immediate supervisor will be Apple software head Craig Federighi. This takes the fate of Siri completely out of Giannandrea's hands. Rockwell's move leaves an opening at the Vision Products Group and that void will be filled by Paul Meade; the latter had run hardware engineering for the Vision Pro.

Robbie Walker, the Apple executive who has been in charge of Siri until now, called out his team for the "ugly" delays in releasing "Personal Siri." Walker said that he was not sure when Siri's new features will arrive but Apple has said that the updates for Siri, bringing the assistant's new capabilities, will appear "in the coming year."

For those who remember the promise that Siri showed when it launched with the iPhone 4s in 2011, the assistant has become the poster child for technology with untapped potential. Apple hopes that today's moves will help Siri take a huge step toward becoming the tool that iPhone users were expecting from it all those years ago.

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.