Mike Rockwell Oversees Siri Overhaul at Apple

Apple reassigned responsibility for Siri to Mike Rockwell, the executive who led the Vision Pro effort, moving the assistant out of the AI organization overseen by John Giannandrea and into the software engineering group led by Craig Federighi. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman first reported the change in March 2025, with Paul Meade taking over the Vision Products Group; Giannandrea remained at Apple. Reporting tied the move to missed expectations for Apple Intelligence and Siri after repeated delays.

At WWDC 2026 on June 8, Apple unveiled the overhaul as "Siri AI," describing a rebuilt, more conversational assistant that can hold multi-turn conversations, draw on real-time knowledge, and act across a user's apps and personal data. Per MacRumors and TechCrunch, the assistant gains a standalone app, Dynamic Island integration, and Mac and visionOS integrations, with Google's Gemini models running underneath the experience. Federighi presented the update and emphasized Apple's privacy approach, saying "We believe privacy in AI is non-negotiable." The new Siri is tied to iOS 27, which Apple said will ship in fall 2026.

Routing a high-profile, cross-cutting AI feature into the broader software organization after delivery problems is a common lever for accelerating execution. Placing a leader with recent hardware-and-software delivery experience closer to Siri, while shifting vision-product software under Federighi, reprioritizes integration and productization over concentrated research oversight. The reliance on Gemini also underscores how far Apple chose to lean on an external model partner for its assistant.

The original reassignment was reported by Bloomberg and summarized by other outlets, citing unnamed sources and Gurman's newsletter. Earlier coverage had speculated about whether Rockwell would take a visible role at WWDC and how Apple would credit the work; with the keynote now delivered and Federighi presenting Siri AI, that pre-event speculation is largely moot. Apple did not commit to a firm launch date for the full Siri rollout at the keynote, which some market coverage flagged as a concern.

Track the iOS 27 beta-to-release timeline for Siri AI, how much of the demoed cross-app functionality ships on schedule, the durability of the Apple-Google Gemini arrangement, and how Apple credits and staffs the Siri organization going forward.