Apple has put Mike Rockwell in charge of Siri—and the changes have started fast. Just weeks after stepping into the role, Rockwell has begun dismantling the existing structure of the Siri engineering team and replacing key figures with trusted lieutenants from his Vision Pro software group.
The internal shake-up reflects a clear message: Apple isn’t satisfied with Siri’s current performance and is turning to the Vision Pro team to lead a comeback.
Rockwell isn’t easing into the role. He’s bringing in experienced developers who previously worked under him on visionOS, shifting the strategy and leadership of one of Apple’s most troubled software efforts.
Vision Pro Team Takes Over Siri
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Rockwell is replacing major segments of Siri’s leadership with former Vision Pro executives. Ranjit Desai now heads much of Siri’s core engineering, including its platform and systems. Olivier Gutknecht takes over user experience. Veteran engineers Nate Begeman and Tom Duffy have joined to manage Siri’s foundational architecture.
Stuart Bowers, who oversaw data training and evaluation teams, will focus on improving Siri’s response quality. David Winarsky will now lead all voice and speech-related components. Together, these changes signal that Apple is sidelining much of Siri’s prior leadership and betting on new blood to revive the assistant.
The team isn’t just reassigning people. Siri’s core architecture is being reworked. Instead of the current two-system model, Apple plans to shift to a single large language model that powers both basic and advanced tasks. The goal: a smoother, more conversational user experience. But the full transition could take years.
Apple Pushes for a Siri Reset
As reported by Bloomberg, this overhaul began earlier in the year with the reassignment of Kim Vorrath—a seasoned project leader known for handling difficult rollouts. She joined the Siri team from Vision Pro before being moved again under software chief Craig Federighi, along with Rockwell.
These moves come as Siri faces increasing pressure from competitors. Google, OpenAI, and Amazon have all pushed ahead in the AI space, while Siri has struggled with delays, failed rollouts, and system bugs. An internal admission revealed Siri failed as often as a third of the time, leaving some teams “embarrassed.”
Rockwell’s leadership marks a reset. Apple wants Siri to catch up—and it’s betting that the team that built visionOS can get it there.
Source: The Mac Observer / Digpu NewsTex