Over the years, Vorrath has had a hand in several of Apple’s biggest endeavours. In the mid-2000s, she was chosen to lead project management for the original iPhone software group and get the iconic device ready for consumers. Until 2019, she oversaw project management for the iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems, before taking on the Vision Pro software. Haley Allen will replace Vorrath overseeing program management for visionOS, the headset’s operating system, according to the people.
Prior to joining Giannandrea’s organisation, Vorrath had spent several weeks advising Kelsey Peterson, the group’s previous head of program management. Peterson will now report to Vorrath — as will two other AI executives, Cindy Lin and Marc Schonbrun. Giannandrea, who joined Apple from Google in 2018, disclosed the changes in a memo sent to staffers.
The move signals that AI is now more important than the Vision Pro, which launched in February 2024, and is seen as the biggest challenge within the company, according to a longtime Apple executive who asked not to be identified. Vorrath has a knack for organising engineering groups and creating an effective workflow with new processes, the executive said.
It has been clear for some time now that Giannandrea needs additional help managing an AI group with growing prominence, according to the executive. 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 revamping the underlying infrastructure of Siri and improving the company’s in-house 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-message and notification summarisation. More advanced capabilities like Genmoji — a tool for creating custom 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 has reported. The new version is designed to better respond to queries by tapping into the customer’s data. It also can identify what’s currently on a user’s screen and more precisely control the device’s applications through a system called App Intents.
