In a shake-up aimed at revitalizing Apple’s aging Siri voice assistant, the iPhone giant brought in Mike Rockwell to lead a comprehensive overhaul now in progress, according to a new report. First, the former head of Vision Pro software continues revitalizing the Siri leadership team in the Vision Pro team’s image.
New Siri chief Mike Rockwell and his Vision Pro team take on crucial Siri overhaul
In his early moves, Rockwell began overhauling Siri team leadership with some of his trusted Vision Pro lieutenants, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman. With the reorg, Apple hopes to catch up with competitors like Google and OpenAI in the artificial intelligence space.
The management changes follow project delays and engineering challenges that prompted CEO Tim Cook to seek new leadership for Siri. It has fallen behind rival voice assistants since its 2011 debut. Rockwell’s appointment last month came during a broader management restructuring that reduced responsibilities for AI chief John Giannandrea and former Siri head Robby Walker.
Vision Pro talent to the rescue
Rockwell has quickly brought in several key executives from his Vision Pro team to lead Siri’s transformation:
- Ranjit Desai, a longtime Rockwell deputy, will now lead much of Siri’s engineering, including platform and systems groups. Rockwell told staff that Desai’s expertise in “high-performance, low-latency systems” will elevate Siri’s performance to a “new level.”
- Olivier Gutknecht, previously a senior Vision Pro software executive, takes over Siri’s user experience team and will oversee the critical App Intents feature.
- Nate Begeman and Tom Duffy, veteran Apple software engineering managers who worked on Vision Pro OS and iPhone’s Core OS, respectively, will handle Siri’s underlying architecture.
- Stuart Bowers will expand his role working on Siri’s response capabilities, while David Winarsky will lead a new group focused on voice and speech components.
Architectural overhaul underway
Apple is fundamentally rethinking Siri’s architecture, the report said. The current implementation uses two separate systems — one for basic commands like setting timers, and another based on large language models (LLMs) for more advanced tasks. This dual-brain approach has created integration challenges, with reports indicating the system fails as much as a third of the time.
The company is now developing a unified architecture based entirely on large-language models (LLMs), which should enable more conversational interactions. While this overhaul is expected to take years to complete, it represents Apple’s commitment to bringing Siri up to par with modern AI assistants.
App Intents: Complex commands made simple
A key part of Siri’s planned upgrades is the App Intents feature. It allows users to trigger complex sequences of actions with simple voice commands. For example, future versions of Siri should be able to find a photo, edit it, and send it via email or iMessage — all from a single instruction.
To ensure this feature works seamlessly, Apple plans to collaborate directly with major third-party developers while deeply integrating the capability into its own apps.
Apple Vision Pro team takes on crucial Siri overhaul: Challenges ahead
Despite the ambitious restructuring, questions remain about whether the Vision Pro team is the right choice to lead Siri’s revival. While the Vision Pro hasn’t achieved commercial success, industry observers note that Rockwell has demonstrated an ability to manage complex projects and secure substantial investments from Apple’s leadership.
The revamped Siri is a central component of Apple’s broader AI strategy, which the company branded as “Apple Intelligence” during its developer conference last June. While initial features have faced delays, the new leadership team appears determined to deliver a voice assistant that can finally compete in today’s AI-driven landscape.
For Apple users, these changes promise a more capable, reliable Siri in the coming years — one that may finally fulfill the potential that was first glimpsed when the assistant debuted over a decade ago.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
