Apple chief executive John Ternus has pushed software chief Craig Federighi to speed up Apple’s AI plans, Mark Gurman reported for Bloomberg on Sunday. Ternus wants Apple to move beyond improving Siri. According to the report, he held a closed-door meeting with Federighi in recent weeks. Ternus is frustrated by what he sees as Apple’s reluctance to match its rivals’ urgency on AI. TNW has not independently verified the report.
In public, Ternus has struck a different tone. On Apple’s earnings call last week, he praised the new Siri AI. Last month he told WIRED that Apple would not ship AI for AI’s sake.
“It’s primarily request-based today, but as we talked about at WWDC, it’s built on a modern orchestrator-driven architecture that gives us real room to expand its capabilities over time,” Ternus said on the call. “As far as agentic capabilities, we think these are promising tools for users.”
An AI sceptic in charge of Apple’s AI
Federighi became Apple’s AI chief last year, after the company removed its former AI leader, John Giannandrea. He still has a reputation as an AI sceptic, Gurman wrote. He has worried about the technology’s effects on privacy, security, society and jobs.
Some employees describe a hands-on management style that leaves little room for competing ideas, according to Bloomberg. Federighi also tends to plan over 12 to 18 months, while Apple’s hardware teams work to multiyear road maps.
He also led the rebuild that brought a working Siri AI to market with iOS 27. The new Siri runs on models based on technology Apple licenses from Google.
Mike Rockwell, Apple’s vice president of Siri engineering, is still seriously considering stepping down next year, Bloomberg reported. He could leave the role or Apple altogether. More responsibility would then likely fall to two people. One is Amar Subramanya, a Google veteran Apple hired last year. The other is Sebastien Marineau, a Federighi deputy. Some inside Apple see Marineau as a possible future successor to Federighi.
From in-app actions to an agentic Siri
The iOS 27.3 beta lets Siri carry out precise actions inside Apple’s own apps. It can organise Safari tabs, sort folders in Files and unsend an iMessage. It can also edit and share a photo in several steps. Gurman expects that to reach users as early as December, with the public release of iOS 27.3.
Support for third-party apps will probably follow in the spring, with iOS 27.5 or iOS 27.6, he wrote. That would let Siri book a table through OpenTable or place an order through Uber Eats.
Even then, Siri would only act when asked. OpenAI’s ChatGPT Dots, Meta’s Muse and Grok can take on ongoing tasks, track goals and keep working between conversations.
“Apple ultimately wants to go in this direction, I’m told, and I believe the company could make Siri more like an agent as early as next year,” Gurman wrote.
Apple also lacks a computer-use tool, Gurman noted. ChatGPT and Claude already offer one, which can read a screen, move a cursor, click buttons and type into apps.
A new schedule for iOS 28
Apple has also changed how it builds next year’s operating systems, according to Bloomberg. Each development milestone normally splits into four weeks of coding and four weeks of integrating features into the system.
The first milestone for iOS 28, iPadOS 28 and macOS 28 gave engineers six weeks of coding and two of integration. Employees say they like the change, Gurman reported. Work on the second milestone, when Apple starts to finalise features, begins on Monday.