Behind closed doors, Apple CEO John Ternus has reportedly grown frustrated with his company’s pace on artificial intelligence, pressing software chief Craig Federighi to move faster on Siri’s capabilities.
The internal urgency stands in contrast to Ternus’s composed public posture at Apple’s analyst call on November 2, where he described Siri as built on a “modern orchestrator-driven architecture” and suggested expansion would come gradually over time.
Bloomberg reported that Apple is targeting agentic functionality for Siri as early as next year, with Federighi tasked with leading the push to transform the assistant into something closer to a full AI agent.
The company’s ambitions appear squarely aimed at rivals including Muse, Grok, and Dot, consumer-facing AI agents that have built meaningful audiences and are reshaping expectations around voice and task-based assistants.
Analyst Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management has flagged the stakes bluntly, writing that personalized agents represent “the biggest risk to the Apple ecosystem,” and estimating that roughly 20 million users globally already rely on such tools, with that figure potentially reaching a billion within a few years.
Apple has taken early practical steps, opening Siri last week to developer integrations and feature testing, with broader consumer experiences expected within months and App Store submissions penciled in for spring 2027.
The upgrade effort faces a potential setback if Mike Rockwell, the executive behind both the Vision Pro headset and Siri’s AI development, follows through on what Bloomberg described as serious consideration of stepping down from the company.
His departure would shift primary responsibility onto Amar Subramanya, a Google veteran brought in last year to strengthen Apple’s AI capabilities, alongside Sebastien Marineau, a deputy within Federighi’s organization.
Outside observers have been pointed in their assessments, with Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan writing on X that “Apple really should redo its entire software team with people who are all the way spun up on software factories.”
Adding to the pressures facing Apple’s leadership, the Financial Times reported that the company avoided $2.7 billion in taxes during fiscal 2026 by routing profits through Singapore, which has become its largest tax shelter with up to $50 billion in profits attributed to its hub there, exceeding even the $2.6 billion saved through its European headquarters in Ireland.
Despite the competitive and governance questions swirling around the company, AAPL stock has climbed 26.2% year-to-date, making it the strongest performer among the Magnificent Seven group of large-cap technology equities.
Retail investors on Stocktwits, however, remain cautious, with sentiment toward AAPL holding at “bearish” for a second consecutive week as traders debate whether the stock’s resilience can outlast a broader cooling in AI-driven market enthusiasm.
