Apple’s failed AI Chief John Giannandrea to finally exit this week
Apple’s failed AI chief, John Giannandrea, will finally exit the company after several years at the helm, after the company announced in a December 2025 press release that the executive would “retire” this spring.
John Giannandrea at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 10, 2024, in Cupertino, California
Apple’s failed AI chief, John Giannandrea, will finally exit the company after several years at the helm, after the company announced in a December 2025 press release that the executive would “retire” this spring.
It’s been a long goodbye for John Giannandrea, the former artificial intelligence boss known as JG. His days were numbered ever since March 2025, when Cook and other Apple executives made the decision to dramatically reduce his role overseeing AI. The move stemmed from the disappointing launch of Apple Intelligence and ongoing delays to the upgrade of the Siri assistant — as well as the broader sense that the company got ambushed by generative AI. At the time, his oversight of Siri, robotics and other AI teams was yanked.
At the end of last year, Apple made the exit official, saying that Giannandrea would be retiring in 2026. His remaining responsibilities — Apple’s foundation models, AI testing and various other functions — were split up across software chief Craig Federighi, services head Eddy Cue and operating chief Sabih Khan. Since then, JG has been “advising,” or what is better known as “resting and vesting.” That means hanging out on the payroll until his stock vests.
The next Apple vesting date is April 15, and I am told JG’s final days at Apple are indeed this coming week…
Giannandrea came to Apple from Google, and he will likely be remembered as another of Cook’s outside hires that failed to click. But here’s the reality: I don’t think the issue is that Cook doesn’t know how to hire from the outside. The truth is that the top of Apple is run like a small family business with few decision-makers. And if you’re not in the inner circle — which is nearly impossible to crack — you’re simply not empowered enough to drive real change at the company.
MacDailyNews Take: Cook doesn’t know how to hire from the outside precisely because, for some fifteen years now, he has failed to create the proper onboarding and integration conditions necessary for outside hires to succeed.
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