Apple Held Secret Meeting to Address AI Crisis and Siri Delays [Report]

Apple executives convened a meeting in early 2025 to confront a growing internal crisis regarding the company's artificial intelligence strategy. Faced with underwhelming reception to early Apple Intelligence features and significant delays to a critical Siri overhaul, leadership realized changes were necessary to keep pace with rapid advancements from industry rivals.



Called to order by former Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, the gathering highlighted concerns over cultural and structural issues within Apple's AI efforts. CEO Tim Cook had already lost confidence in AI chief John Giannandrea, who would eventually leave the company. During the discussion, Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell volunteered to take over and fix the struggling digital assistant.


According to Mark Gurman, former hardware chief Dan Riccio had warned colleagues roughly a decade earlier that artificial intelligence could become an existential threat to Apple's devices and tasked Rockwell with creating a roadmap to overhaul Siri. While Rockwell initially sought a broader AI leadership role reporting directly to Cook, software chief Craig Federighi insisted on keeping AI within the software engineering organization. Rockwell ultimately agreed to lead the Siri reboot under Federighi. Apple later brought in former Google and Microsoft executive Amar Subramanya to oversee AI models and research.

The crisis also prompted an uncharacteristic shift in management style for Cook. The typically hands-off chief executive became deeply involved in Apple's artificial intelligence roadmap, weighing in on features and urging executives to approach the technology with greater urgency. Around the same time, Rockwell, Federighi, and Eddy Cue were able to secure an agreement with Google to use Gemini models and Google Cloud technology as part of Apple's broader Siri overhaul.

Apple is expected to showcase the results of those changes at the Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. The rollout will likely include a revamped Siri experience alongside a standalone chatbot application in iOS 27. The company is also reportedly reversing its previous stance on generative image manipulation, adding tools that allow users to fill in photo gaps and alter perspectives.

Fixing Siri remains critical to Apple's broader product roadmap. Software challenges tied to Siri and Apple's AI models have already contributed to delays affecting products such as an anticipated smart home display, a tabletop robotic hub, and future smart glasses. As Cook prepares to hand the chief executive role to John Ternus this September, the company's ability to execute on its AI strategy is expected to play a major role in determining when those products reach the market.