title: "Apple’s New CEO Inherits a Siri-Sized AI Problem" excerpt: "John Ternus is taking over from Tim Cook, but Apple’s biggest challenge now" is not hardware. It is fixing Siri and catching up in AI. category: esports date: '2026-04-22T02:03:24+08:00' author: Aimirul tags:
- Apple
- AI
- Siri
- John Ternus featured: false coverImage: /images/esports/apple-s-new-ceo-inherits-a-siri-sized-ai-problem.jpg
Apple has officially named John Ternus as Tim Cook’s successor, with the longtime hardware executive set to become CEO on September 1. On paper, it is a major leadership handover for one of the world’s biggest tech companies. But the bigger story is this: Apple’s next boss is walking straight into an AI problem that still feels very unresolved.
Ternus is not some outsider hire. He has been with Apple for 25 years and is currently the company’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. Apple says he has led hardware engineering across every iPad model, plus the latest iPhone lineup and AirPods. In its announcement, the company highlighted his work on better AirPods noise cancellation, hearing health upgrades, the launch of the MacBook Neo, and efforts around durability and repairability.
What stood out, though, was what Apple did not talk about. The official announcement did not mention AI at all.
That omission matters because Apple is already seen as playing from behind in the current AI race. Siri still does not match what users can get from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, or Anthropic. Apple has also leaned on outside partners for core model support instead of showing a clearly dominant in-house assistant strategy.
For Malaysian and wider SEA users, this is not some Silicon Valley-only issue. A lot of people here are deep in Apple’s ecosystem, especially iPhone, AirPods, iPad, and MacBook users who expect premium features to actually feel ahead of the curve. If Apple keeps moving slow on AI, that gap becomes more obvious when Android brands and Windows PCs are already pushing harder with smarter assistants, search, and productivity tools.
To be fair, going all-in on AI does not automatically mean better products. Microsoft has taken plenty of heat for stuffing Copilot into Windows 11 apps and features, to the point that some users felt the experience became bloated. The Verge notes that backlash even helped popularise the term "Microslop," with Microsoft later appearing to pull back or at least soften the branding around some of those changes.
That gives Apple a possible opening. If Ternus can help the company bring AI into its products in a way that still feels clean, useful, and very Apple, there is room to win people back. But right now, the bigger issue is much simpler: Apple has promised major Siri improvements and still has not delivered them.
At WWDC last June, Apple pushed Apple Intelligence and talked up features like live translation. But the more personalised Siri features first shown at WWDC 2024 were delayed, with Apple saying they would roll out over the following year. Ads from 2024 showed off Siri abilities that still have not arrived nearly two years later. With WWDC 2026 getting closer, there is still no official timeline for when that upgraded Siri will finally show up.
Apple has meanwhile used ChatGPT to patch some of Siri’s weaknesses, including support tied to Image Playground and visual intelligence features. The company has also said users may eventually get a choice of models. In January, Apple reportedly signed a deal with Google to use Gemini for future foundation models, a partnership that could cost as much as $1 billion a year.
That makes the next big question very obvious: will Apple finally roll out a Gemini-powered Siri by WWDC 2026, or does that happen only after Ternus fully takes charge?
Either way, Ternus is not inheriting a calm, steady throne. He is inheriting a pressure cooker. Apple’s hardware reputation is still strong, but its AI credibility is shakier than fans expected. For users in Malaysia and SEA, especially those deciding what ecosystem to stick with for the next few years, that makes Apple’s next move worth watching closely.
Source: The Verge
