Apple’s head of engineering plans to bring in Vision Pro group for Siri overhaul

The current head of Apple’s Siri, Mike Rockwell, is reportedly making major changes to the leadership of Siri, bringing on board new engineering leaders from the Vision Pro software team, where he used to be the VP of Vision Products Group. 

Rockwell himself was brought in after a leadership overhaul of Apple’s AI executive by CEO Tim Cook in a bid to revamp Siri and take it to new heights. The voice assistant, once a flagship product, has steadily fallen behind rivals like Google Assistant and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Rockwell’s movement to the Siri team saw the removal of Siri from the purview of John Giannandrea following a series of delays in rolling out AI-driven features and extending the timeline for improvements on Siri to 2026.

Rockwell’s appointment as head of Siri highlights the company’s seriousness in changing Siri’s fortune, given his exploits with the Vision Pro. To do that, Rockwell is turning to the same team that helped ship the Vision Pro.

Vision Pro talents brought in to rebuild Siri

A notable addition by Rockwell to the Siri team is Ranjit Desai, a longtime top deputy from the development of the Vision Pro. Desai is joining the team to oversee much of Siri’s engineering, including the underlying platform and systems groups.

According to Rockwell, Desia’s experience in “high-performance, low-latency systems” would help Siri’s performance reach a “new level.”

Other additions to the team include senior vision pro software executive, Oliver Gutknecht, who will be leading Siri’s user experience. Rockwell also enlisted two seasoned software engineering managers, Nate Begeman and Tom Duffy, to run the platform’s architecture. Both of them have extensive experience working on the Vision Pro operating system and iPhone’s software.

Some existing managers on the Siri team are also being assigned and reassigned roles. Someone like Stuart Bowers, who has led data, training, and evaluation teams, got more responsibilities, which include working on Siri’s ability to figure out how to respond to a user.

However, the restructuring hasn’t been smooth for everyone. Sources say the overhaul has resulted in demotions and role reassignments across the team, as Apple works to reset its approach to voice AI.

Apple Intelligence plans delayed

Last year at the unveiling of Apple Intelligence, the company announced that Siri would be getting a couple of upgrades, such as the ability to fulfill commands by analyzing personal user data and on-screen content. Apple also informed the public that App Intents would be upgraded for more precision, and the rollout was reportedly scheduled for April along with the iOS 18.4 software update.

Due to quality and engineering challenges, Apple was forced to postpone the release of some of these features indefinitely.

Some skeptics have reportedly questioned Rockwell’s ability to stir Siri to the desired heights the Apple leadership wants, given the commercial struggles of the Vision Pro as well as the technical glitches it faced during its earlier days. However, Rockwell’s ability to take on major projects and deliver on them in terms of technological quality makes his case.

Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More