Apple CEO Ternus pushed Federighi to speed up AI road map, Bloomberg's Gurman reports

Apple CEO John Ternus has pushed software chief Craig Federighi to speed up the company’s AI road map, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in his Power On newsletter on Sunday, Nov. 8, according to accounts of the newsletter by 9to5Mac, The Verge and Gizmodo.

In a closed-door meeting in recent weeks, Ternus pushed Federighi “to accelerate the company’s road map and move quickly beyond merely making necessary improvements to Siri,” Gurman wrote, as quoted by 9to5Mac. Gurman described Ternus as frustrated by what he sees as a reluctance to embrace AI with the same urgency as competitors. Federighi became Apple’s AI czar last year, Gurman wrote. Ternus became CEO on Sept. 1, AI Tech Daily reported.

Two Siri updates are expected in the coming months, The Verge reported, citing Gurman. The first, expected with iOS 27.3, would give Siri fine-grained control over Apple’s own apps, such as cropping images in Photos and organizing Safari tabs. Integration with third-party apps, which would let Siri place an order through Grubhub or book a table through OpenTable, is likely to come later, in the spring, according to Gurman. Apple opened a Siri AI developer preview in the iOS 27.3 betas last week.

Gurman wrote that rival agents can keep track of goals and keep pursuing objectives without the user initiating every step. “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,” he wrote, according to 9to5Mac. The 2027 timing is Gurman’s own assessment.

Apple has also changed how it is building iOS 28, macOS 28 and related updates, Gurman reported, according to MacRumors. Each year’s work normally runs in three stages, each with four weeks of coding followed by four weeks of convergence, when new features are integrated. For the first iOS 28 stage, engineers had six weeks of “coding, exploration and feature development” and two weeks of convergence. “Employees say they like the change,” Gurman wrote. MacRumors said Gurman did not reveal any specific iOS 28 features.

According to Gizmodo, Gurman also wrote that Mike Rockwell, vice president of Siri engineering, is still considering leaving his role or Apple next year, and that if he does, his Siri work could go to Amar Subramanya and Sebastien Marineau.

Bloomberg reported last week that Apple had lowered some engineers’ daily AI spending caps.

Apple CEO Ternus pushed Federighi to speed up AI road map, Bloomberg’s Gurman reports

Sources