Sources detail Apple's AI efforts, John Giannandrea's tenure, Craig Federighi's reservations to invest in generative AI, and its acquisitions, including Siri

Insiders say continued failure to get artificial intelligence right threatens everything from the iPhone's dominance to plans for robots and other futuristic products.

Bloomberg 2025-05-19

Context & Ripple Effects

This account extends a multiyear pattern in which Apple’s AI shortcomings have been attributed to organizational dysfunction and limited ambition around Siri and machine learning. A 2024 push made generative AI a tent-pole project after leaders concluded Siri was antiquated, but the latest reporting suggests that decision did not resolve the underlying execution questions.

The stakes have widened from a lagging assistant to Apple’s product roadmap. Reports of internal turmoil around Siri’s leadership and earlier friction between AI and product teams make the company’s ability to turn AI research, acquisitions and product integration into a coordinated capability the central issue.

First-order effects

Apple’s AI leadership and product teams face heightened pressure to demonstrate that Siri-related work and acquired technology can translate into dependable consumer features.
Uncertainty around the AI effort directly raises execution risk for the iPhone experience and for AI-dependent future-product plans cited by the sources.

Second-order effects

A prolonged gap between Apple’s AI ambitions and delivered product capabilities would make its installed-device reach less effective as an AI rollout channel, while rival platforms gain more opportunity to define user expectations.
Apple may need to rely more heavily on external technology, acquisitions or cross-functional product control if its current AI organization cannot close the reported delivery gap.

Third-order effects

The story points to a broader shift in which consumer-device leaders’ advantage depends less on hardware integration alone and more on whether they can industrialize AI across models, compute, software and product teams.
If this pattern persists, AI execution could reshape platform power: device distribution remains valuable, but it may not protect incumbents whose internal AI organizations cannot ship competitive experiences.

The trend: Consumer hardware incumbents are being tested on whether their organizational ability to ship AI can convert device distribution into a lasting platform advantage.

Discussion

@viticci.macstories.net Federico Viticci on bluesky
🍿 — “To meet expected European Union regulations, the company is now working on changing its operating systems so that, for the first time, users can switch from Siri as their default voice assistant to third-party options” — www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
@rustybrick Barry Schwartz on x
An interesting look at Apple's failures with Siri and Apple Intelligence * Jobs discovering Siri * Some fighting to go with Google Gemini * AI Agents being many years away * Hundreds of bugs in Apple Intelligence * Apple's Privacy causing issues for what ML train on [image]
@thegalox_ Anthony on x
“Apple plans to mostly stop announcing new features more than a few months before they are ready to launch” Who would've thought announcing features and then taking months just to release a half baked version of what was promised wasn't a good idea [image]
@dagk Dag Kittlaus on x
Siri is going to rise back into the AI drivers seat when Apple really gets things cooking. Brain transplant, stat! https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@chrispirillo Chris Pirillo on x
@markgurman Siri was the final shove I needed to flip to Android eons ago. Unsure I'd go back even if the new UI/UX is boffo (not holding my breath on that one, either).
@signulll @signulll on x
since jobs left it feels like apple doesn't have any ears to the ground anymore. instead of feeling the pulse of how ai is changing culture in real time, they're in their ivory tower obsessing over complete nonsense. like apple used to be the culture company. they defacto shap…
@samirkhazaka Samir Khazaka on x
The iPhone ecosystem is better than Android no matter Apple AI current status. The biggest, perhaps only, clear advantage Android has is lower pricing and better discounts. Today's Android on-device Generative AI assortment of apps and services aren't big differentiators. $AAPL
@mattrosoff Matt Rosoff on x
Particularly damning as it's increasingly clear GenAI is and will remain a consumer technology - business use cases are so far marginal and few.
@chrispirillo Chris Pirillo on x
Use Google Assistant for a day and you'll see just how far behind Siri has been for years. It's not going to get any better anytime soon and the disparity is only going to widen.
@alexmaxham Alex Maxham on x
So Apple didn't believe in AI and didn't want to spend money on GPUs, that's why they're behind. Yikes https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
NEW: Why Apple Hasn't Cracked AI — The inside story of Apple's generative AI and Siri failures, setbacks that threaten everything from the iPhone's dominance to plans for future products. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
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