(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. Executive Kim Vorrath, a company veteran known for fixing troubled products and bringing major projects to market, has a new job: whipping up artificial intelligence and Siri in shape.
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Vorrath, vice president of program management, was moved to Apple’s artificial intelligence and machine learning division this week, according to people with knowledge of the matter. She will be a top deputy to AI chief John Giannandrea, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the change has not been publicly announced.
The move helps strengthen a team that is working to make Apple a leader in AI – an area where it has lagged behind tech peers. The company has struggled to match the capabilities of Alphabet Inc.’s Openai, Meta Platforms Inc. and Google, and its Apple Intelligence platform has suffered from a slow and bumpy rollout.
The digital assistant Siri, revolutionary when it was unveiled in 2011, came to symbolize Apple’s shortcomings in AI. Upstarts like Openai have created their own, more versatile chatbots, and smartphone rival Samsung Electronics Co. has been quicker to weave artificial intelligence features into its software. Amazon.com Inc. is also adapting its Alexa platform for the world of AI.
Vorrath, who spent 36 years at Apple, is known for handling the development of difficult software projects. It also has procedures in place that can catch and fix bugs. Vorrath joins the new team in Apple’s Hardware Engineering division, where she helped launch the Vision Pro headset.
A spokesperson for Cupertino, Calif., Apple declined to comment on the move.
Over the years, Vorrath has contributed to many of Apple’s biggest efforts. In the mid-2000s, she was chosen to lead project management for the original iPhone software group and prepare the iconic device for consumers. Until 2019, she oversaw project management for the iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems, before taking on Vision Pro software. According to people.
Before joining GiannanDrea’s organization, Vorrath spent several weeks advising Kelsey Peterson, the group’s previous chief of program management. Peterson will now report to Vorrath – as will two other AI leaders, Cindy Lin and Marc Schonbrun. Giannandrea, who joined Apple from Google in 2018, revealed the changes in a memo sent to staff members.
The move indicates that AI is now more important than the Vision Pro, which launched in February 2024, and is considered the company’s biggest challenge, according to a longtime Apple executive who asked not be identified. Vorrath has a talent for organizing engineering groups and creating an efficient workflow with new processes, the executive said.
According to the executive, it has been clear for some time that Giannandrea needs additional help managing an AI group with growing importance. Vorrath is poised to bring Apple’s product development culture to the AI work, the person said.
This year, the artificial intelligence group is focused on overhauling Siri’s underlying infrastructure and improving the company’s internal AI models, Giannandrea said in the memo.
The company debuted its Apple Intelligence platform in October, but the initial version only included basic features like Text Text and Notification Summary. More advanced capabilities like Genmoji – a tool for creating personalized emoji via AI – have launched more recently.
Apple has promised to overhaul Siri as part of the AI rollout, but that element isn’t ready yet. The company aims to release a new version of the digital assistant as part of iOS 18.4 in April, Bloomberg reported. The new version is designed to better answer queries by explaining customer data. It can also identify what is currently on a user’s screen and more precisely control apps on the device through a system called App Intents.
The current version of Siri has drawn criticism for not understanding requests and not carrying out simple commands. And even when the promised features do launch, they don’t match the capabilities unveiled by Samsung, which uses a mix of its own technology and Google’s Gemini platform.
Apple is working on an even more advanced version of Siri that includes a more conversational interface – something more in line with Chatgpt and other AI offerings. It won’t be ready until at least 2026, although Apple may preview the software this year, Bloomberg reported.
In another setback, Apple was recently criticized for inaccurate AI-generated summaries. In one case, the corporation summed up the BBC to falsely say that Luigi Mangione – accused of killing a healthcare executive – had shot himself.
Apple responded to the shutter by removing the feature for news and entertainment apps in its next software update. The company did not say when capacity would return.
Last year, Apple enlisted another top executive to help pass the order to Giannandrea’s group. When the company’s self-driving car project was shut down in February, longtime software director Kevin Lynch was moved to the AI division. He now leads Apple’s secret robotics team within the organization.
When Giannandrea joined Apple seven years ago, he initially served as a vice president reporting to CEO Tim Cook. He was quickly promoted to Apple’s management team – a small executive of top brass. But in recent months, current and former executives have expressed concerns about its ability to transform Apple into a force in AI.
Vorrath has a chance to impose more discipline on the effort, according to the executive who asked not to be named. Although the Vision Pro was not a hit with consumers, it brought sanity and sanity to that product’s development team, the person said, and the software was greatly improved.
