John Giannandrea (존 지아난드레아), Apple’s senior vice president who has overseen its machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, is expected to leave the company this week.

IT outlet PhoneArena reported on April 12 that Giannandrea’s time at Apple is likely to end sometime this week.

Giannandrea has led Apple’s machine learning and AI strategy for the past 8 years. His role drew the most attention at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in 2024, when the company unveiled a suite of AI features including Apple Intelligence. Setbacks involving Siri and Apple Intelligence followed. Reports emerged late last year that his departure was imminent. His authority over AI development had already been sharply reduced for months at that time.

The departure is reported to be tied to the vesting of Apple stock awards scheduled for April 15. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote in a newsletter that this may be the timing Giannandrea had been waiting for, and said his final days at work would also end within this week.

Some views have also emerged that it is hard to pin responsibility for AI failures on one person. Gurman said Apple Intelligence’s poor performance was not necessarily because of Giannandrea. He said Apple’s top management structure operates like a small family business, and assessed that it was difficult for an outside hire like Giannandrea to have enough authority to push through real change within the company.

A shift in Apple’s internal view of AI has also been cited as a factor. Software chief Craig Federighi (크레이그 페더리기) was initially sceptical about the early ChatGPT boom, but began pushing it actively after trying to write code using AI one night, the report said. An assessment followed that Apple leadership’s early reluctance toward AI worked as an unfavourable condition for Giannandrea.

His next move is also seen as leaning in a different direction than moving to another big tech company. Giannandrea is expected to plan to take on an advisory role in the startup sector rather than immediately move to another technology company. For Apple, attention has turned to how it will fill the AI leadership vacuum and whether it can actually release a new Siri this year.