John Ternus’s First Big Problem Is Ai

Less than a twelvemonth ago, Apple made headlines for a deficiency of AI announcements astatine its yearly WWDC event. Ten months later, nan institution has announced that hardware executive John Ternus will win longtime CEO Tim Cook arsenic main executive — and nan charismatic merchandise doesn’t mention AI once.

Ternus, presently Apple’s SVP of hardware engineering, will return complete arsenic CEO connected September 1st, aft Cook’s decade and a half successful nan role. Ternus is simply a 25-year seasoned of nan institution and nan first Apple CEO successful astir 30 years to travel from nan hardware sector. According to Apple, he’s led hardware engineering activity for each exemplary of iPad, arsenic good arsenic nan astir caller iPhone family and AirPods. Yesterday’s announcement highlighted Ternus’s activity adding amended sound cancellation and proceeding wellness upgrades for AirPods, overseeing nan MacBook Neo’s debut, and upping Apple products’ durability and repairability. Not erstwhile did nan institution mention his plans aliases applicable acquisition for advancing AI.

And pinch each eyes connected Apple’s C-suite aft much than a twelvemonth of grounded promises astir nan company’s AI adjunct offerings, that’s judge to beryllium noticed.

In caller years, Apple has taken connected a reputation for trailing competitors successful nan AI race. Its AI adjunct Siri lacks nan capabilities of competing products from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic, and it relies connected different companies for nan underlying models. Microsoft and Google person some gone each successful connected incorporating agentic AI features into their operating systems successful ways that Apple simply hasn’t — and sometimes erstwhile it’s tried, for illustration via Apple Intelligence’s notification summaries, it’s gotten made nosy of for missing nan mark.

That’s not to opportunity that stuffing AI into a strategy is simply a motion of success. Microsoft, for instance, has been widely criticized for going excessively acold pinch its AI integration for Windows 11 and introducing Copilot into each area of nan operating system, moreover successful its Notepad and Snipping Tool. It led to personification backlash, nan emergence of nan word “Microslop,” and a determination to locomotion backmost immoderate of nan changes (or astatine slightest appear to do so via a rebrand, amid user fears that Windows 12 would further clasp AI successful everything). Some Microsoft users reportedly switched to nan MacBook Neo, which offered a little value constituent to compete pinch Microsoft devices and, ironically, little AI-ification. So if Ternus tin usage his decades astatine Apple, and his clip moving nether Steve Jobs, to beforehand Apple’s AI systems correct — successful nan thoughtful, well-designed, and simplistic measurement that Apple is known for — past he whitethorn beryllium capable to drawback nan institution up successful immoderate ways.

But too integration plans, there’s still nan basal problem of nan existent AI adjunct features that Apple has fallen down on. Other AI labs person spent nan past mates of years dramatically advancing agentic AI systems, which purpose to execute analyzable and multistep tasks connected users’ behalf, though there’s still room for improvement. Apple has a long-standing estimation for showing up precocious to a merchandise class pinch a winning entry, but here, it’s simply made promises and grounded to deliver.

Last June astatine WWDC, executives referenced Apple Intelligence and highlighted unrecorded translator features, but personalization features for Siri — first mentioned astatine WWDC 2024 — were delayed, pinch executives saying nan rollout would hap “over nan people of nan adjacent year.” Ads ran successful 2024 showing Siri pinch capabilities that still haven’t arrived astir 2 years later. Craig Federighi, Apple’s SVP of package engineering, said astatine nan clip that nan updates to Siri “needed much clip to scope our precocious value bar, and we look guardant to sharing much astir it successful nan coming year.” Fast-forward 10 months, and there’s nary charismatic connection connected erstwhile nan caller Siri will arrive, moreover arsenic WWDC 2026 quickly approaches.

Last year, nan company’s strategy seemed to beryllium leaning on OpenAI’s ChatGPT to capable successful a fewer of Siri’s gaps, for illustration integrating ChatGPT into Apple’s Image Playground and adding ocular intelligence features. Executives person many times said successful nan past they dream Apple users will beryllium capable to take different competitors’ models to usage arsenic well, and arsenic of January, Apple yet inked its deal pinch Google to pat Gemini for thief fueling Apple’s early instauration models, perchance costing Apple $1 billion per year. But moreover that woody was perchance precocious — past April, during Google’s hunt monopoly trial, CEO Sundar Pichai said nan statement pinch Apple would hopefully beryllium signed wrong months, resulting successful a rollout by nan extremity of 2025.

Now, nan mobility is whether nan all-new, Gemini-powered Siri will rotation retired by WWDC 2026, aliases whether nan debut will hap later, erstwhile Ternus is officially astatine nan helm. On Alphabet’s February net call, executives largely ignored a mobility astir nan company’s AI partnerships, including pinch Apple, though Pichai said he was looking guardant to Google powering “the adjacent procreation of Apple instauration models based connected Gemini technology.”

Ternus, who reportedly has a estimation for maintaining Apple products alternatively than innovating caller ones, will beryllium tasked pinch a gangly bid successful starring nan world’s first trillion-dollar institution into its caller AI era — not only playing catch-up, but trying to get up of its competitors, which are already moving astatine breakneck speed.