Tim Cook has months left as Apple’s CEO, and he is spending them on this

What Cook actually did

The rebuilt Siri is the product Cook personally took command of. | Image by Apple

Around the same time as the meeting where Apple’s leadership fought over who would fix Siri, Cook decided to take AI into his own hands. He got involved in the roadmap, voiced his preferences for specific features, and started making unilateral calls on Apple’s plans.Then he rallied the whole company. In an hourlong all-hands session, he told staff that AI is “as big or bigger” than the internet, smartphones, the cloud and apps, and that the opportunity is, in his words, “ours to grab.”

Why this is so out of character

Here is the thing about Cook: this is not how he runs Apple. For most of his time as CEO, his role in product development has meant sitting in on demos, giving opinions, and leaving the roadmaps and decisions to his lieutenants. He sets direction and trusts his people to execute.

After Apple Intelligence flopped, that changed. Gurman reports Cook became more hands-on with AI than with any product initiative in a decade. He also pushed Federighi and other executives to get their act together, believing they had badly underperformed on a technology that was not even on Apple’s radar when ChatGPT launched at the end of 2022. Weeks after the meeting, services chief Eddy Cue went as far as saying publicly that AI could upend the iPhone business within a decade.

Why this matters

The timing is the whole story. Cook hands the CEO job to John Ternus on September 1, so his sudden plunge into AI is happening in his final months at the top. The rebuilt Siri at WWDC is both his last act as CEO and the foundation Apple is betting its next decade on. A CEO does not break a decade of habit over something he thinks is going fine.

For context on how late this is, the comparison to Google is not kind. Google announced Gemini replacing its old Assistant back in March 2025, and Gemini already ships as the default on the Pixel 10, while Apple is still working to get its rebuilt Siri out the door. To be fair, Google’s full transition has slipped into 2026, so the rollout has been messy on both sides. The difference is that Apple is the one whose chief executive felt he had to personally take command.

The frustration is not just in the press. Over on Reddit, one user put it bluntly, arguing that Cook is not the CEO Apple needs and that there is no excuse for the company being this late with Siri in such bad shape. That same user said the only thing they do with Siri now is dig into settings to stop it from reading texts aloud through their headphones at the wrong moment. It should be noted that this is one person’s take, but it captures a sentiment that has followed Apple’s AI story for a while.

Will it be good enough?

Here is my problem. I have heard the confidence before. “AI is ours to grab” is a great line for an all-hands, but the gap between how sure Apple sounds and what actually ships has not closed for me yet. Pep talks do not run on my phone. Features do.So I am going in skeptical, and I will say it plainly: I hope Apple proves me wrong at WWDC next week. If Cook breaking a decade of habit is what it takes to put a Siri on my iPhone that I would actually use, then by all means, grab the wheel. I just want to see it work before I believe it.

If you want more hot takes and behind-the-scenes coverage like this, come find me on X and Threads. I post the stuff that does not always make it into the article.