The man who got Siri AI out the door might not be at Apple for what comes next. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Mike Rockwell, Apple’s vice president of Siri engineering, continues to seriously consider stepping down, and could even leave the company next year. Gurman calls it a major blow to Apple.
What’s official
Apple hasn’t confirmed anything, and Rockwell hasn’t commented. What is public is his track record: he created Apple Vision Pro, and in March 2025 Apple put him in charge of Siri, reporting to Craig Federighi, after the delays of the Apple Intelligence Siri. Siri AI shipped under his watch with iOS 27.
The rumor
- Not new: reports of a possible exit first surfaced in April. Back then Gurman said Rockwell had reservations about reporting to Federighi and wanted a bigger role, but wouldn’t leave before the new Siri was done. That new Siri has now shipped.
- Now: he’s still weighing stepping down or moving to another role inside Apple, and could leave altogether in 2027.
- Possible successors: Amar Subramanya, a Google veteran Apple hired last year to shore up its AI efforts, and Sebastien Marineau, a Federighi deputy who leads the teams integrating AI into iOS. Some inside Apple even see Marineau as a possible eventual successor to Federighi, though Gurman calls that a distant prospect.
My take
The timing is awkward. Right when, according to Gurman, Ternus wants Siri to become an agent in 2027, the person who fixed Siri may walk out. Rockwell is one of the few Apple executives who has taken a product from zero to one twice, and that’s hard to replace. The good news is that the handoff wouldn’t start from scratch: Subramanya and Marineau have been at the heart of Siri AI for months. Day to day, you probably won’t notice anything soon; where it would show is in the pace and ambition of what comes next.
Does Siri AI depend on one person or on the team behind it? Let me know in the comments or on social media.
Sources: MacRumors (Mark Gurman’s Power On, Bloomberg), AppleInsider (successors and background), MacRumors (first reports in April). As of November 9, 2026.
