Apple After Gianandrea: Can Amar Subramanya Rebuild the Company’s AI Future?

Tech titan Apple is no longer simply hurting—its foundations are visibly cracking. The company that once set the pace of innovation is now struggling to keep up. Elite AI talent is slipping away, flagship projects are stuck in limbo, and competitors are racing ahead at full speed. The abrupt departure of Apple’s AI chief has exposed the fractures within—a stalled vision and a culture unprepared for the age of artificial intelligence. With rumours swirling about CEO Tim Cook’s retirement next year, Apple is scrambling to regain control. The spotlight is now fixed on a company locked in a battle with its own destiny.

Apple once believed it had found its AI saviour.
In 2018, John Gianandrea, the architect behind Google’s cutting-edge AI, arrived at Apple Park with a mission: rebuild Siri, refine Apple’s intelligence, and push the brand into a new era. Seven years later, that dream is collapsing under pressure. On Monday, Apple confirmed Gianandrea’s resignation as head of AI.

“We are grateful for John’s contributions to advancing Apple’s AI efforts and improving the lives of users worldwide,” the company stated. 

He will be succeeded by Amar Subramanya, an Indian-origin engineer who previously held major leadership roles at both Microsoft and Google. 

Subramanya’s resume includes serving as corporate VP of AI at Microsoft and 16 formative years at Google, where he led engineering for the Gemini Assistant. Apple says its depth of expertise will be critical to shaping future Apple Intelligence features.

But beneath those polite corporate words lies an unmistakable reality: Apple’s AI strategy is faltering—and everyone can see it.

Siri, the once trailblazing voice assistant, has become the punchline in a world ruled by ChatGPT and multimodal AI. Apple unveiled its ambitious Apple Intelligence suite in 2024. It was sleek, polished, and aspirational. Yet while it introduced cautious innovation, rivals like Google and Microsoft fired ahead: faster rollouts, more capable models, bolder integrations. Apple stuck to miniature, risk-free steps. Major features were delayed. Each high-profile announcement remained “in progress.”

Tim Cook insisted progress was happening, just not at the pace the market demanded. Executives repeated the same refrain: it needs time.
But time is precisely what Apple no longer has.

Investors saw the hesitation. They watched the delays mount and asked the most dangerous question: What is breaking inside Cupertino?

The answers are surfacing. Insiders describe the past year as AI chaos. Not just missed targets—fundamental dysfunction. In April 2025, Apple removed Gianandrea’s oversight of the robotics program. Friction had been simmering for far longer. Reports say he clashed with Tim Cook in 2023 over AI chip budgets—a confrontation between Google-style scale and Apple-style restraint. Gianandrea pushed for massive compute and cloud power. Cook insisted on Apple’s sacred path: privacy-first, isolated on-device AI. That philosophy protected the brand but throttled ambition.

Then came the exodus.

In just two years, Apple lost 47 of its top 50 AI researchers—a collapse of institutional knowledge.
18 went to OpenAI, 12 to Google, 9 to Meta, 5 to Anthropic, and 3 founded their own startups.
A brain drain of historic proportions.

And as the storm gathers, another tremor is spreading. Reports suggest Tim Cook may step down as CEO next year. He could maintain influence, but leadership instability is the last thing Apple can afford.

The company is now trying to claw back control. AI spending has surged to nearly $1 billion annually. Apple has loosened its famously strict publication rules, leased new research facilities, and strengthened employee retention. Most telling of all—it is now reportedly leaning on Google’s Gemini to power the next generation of Siri.

When a company rewrites its culture this drastically, troubling questions linger:

• Has the old Apple playbook finally failed?
• Is a true reinvention even possible?
• Or is the promised future already gone?

Apple stands at a precipice—a transformation it cannot postpone and a marathon it can no longer afford to trail. The choices it makes now will determine whether the company resurrects its magic… or watches rivals draft the future it once expected to control.

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