In the cutthroat AI race, one name has been noticeably missing in action: Apple. That might soon change. On Monday, Apple announced that Tim Cook will step down as CEO in September and longtime hardware engineering executive John Ternus will take over the reins of the $4 trillion company.

While not a household name, Ternus has been involved in several key product launches at Apple, including updating the Mac Mini, which later became popular for locally running AI agents like Open Claw, The Wall Street Journal reported. The University of Pennsylvania graduate also oversaw Mac computers’ transition from Intel chips to Apple silicon and is credited with leading the development of Apple Airpods, now a critical part of the company’s ecosystem.

But Ternus has some gigantic shoes to fill at a crucial time in Apple’s history. While iPhone sales continue to grow, all eyes (and ears) are on the company’s most prominent AI feature: its voice assistant Siri, notoriously unreliable and historically limited to basic functions like setting a timer or providing weather updates. The company’s efforts to launch a revamped version of Siri have run into snags, Bloomberg reported. It looks like Apple has decided not to spend boatloads to build its own models, and so far has relied on Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to power its AI features. Ternus will have to decide whether that’s the right long-term strategy as Apple continues to fall behind on AI development.

The Forbes AI 50 2026

In case you missed it, Forbes published its eighth annual AI 50 list, with sponsoring partner Mayfield, that highlights the most promising privately held AI companies in the world.........

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