Apple has secured a new heavyweight for its artificial intelligence division, hiring Amar Subramanya

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a veteran researcher with leadership experience at both Google and Microsoft—as its new vice president of AI . The move comes alongside the announcement that John Giannandrea, Apple’s current AI executive, is set to retire in 2026 .

Characterized by Apple as a “renowned AI researcher” , Subramanya brings deep experience to Cupertino . He spent 16 years at Google, where he served as head of engineering for Gemini , before moving to Microsoft earlier this year . According to Apple’s press release , Subramanya will report directly to Craig Federighi and is tasked with “leading critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation .”

This leadership shakeup doesn’t come as a complete shock . Giannandrea’s arrival in 2018, following his tenure as Google’s VP of search , was originally hailed as a major coup. However, the company has since navigated choppy waters , most notably failing to ship the more personalized, AI-driven version of Siri that was previewed last year. As the overseer of Siri, Giannandrea shouldered much of the blame for these setbacks . Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that CEO Tim Cook had “lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development,” leading to other executives taking the reins on Siri .

In a prepared statement, Cook said he was “thankful” for Giannandrea’s contributions , though he explicitly credited Federighi with steering the revamped Siri project . “In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar’s joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts , including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year .”