Apple is bleeding executives
It's like a cascade.
Apple has announced recently the departures of 2 more executives from their teams, to add onto the 2 announced earlier this week. Lisa Jackson, VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, and General Counsel Kate Adams have been announced to be retiring in January 2026 and "late next year" respecticvely, according to Apple. This is in addition to the announcements of John Giannandrea, SVP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, and Alan Dye, VP of Human Interface departing from their positions this week at Apple as well.
More are expected to come, as CEO Tim Cook succession and retirement is reported to be in the works, though this is not officially confirmed. Along with this, reports have surfaced that SVP of Hardware Technologies, Johny Srouji, has recently considered a move away from the tech giant. This, along with a reported increase of roughly "12% this year, a much smaller jump than the 30% increase it saw in 2024," according to CNN, signals a significant change in leadership at Apple and all leads back to two major things: AI and leadership.
Apple has been flamed recently without end due to their infamously difficult saga of Apple Intelligence in the most recent OS updates. Usually, Apple is the last one to adopt a new market shift or technology, waiting for other companies to do it, and then later doing it the Apple way. This time, however, Apple did not do that, and pushed out Apple Intelligence before it was ready. Delays have pushed releases back almost indefinitely, and criticisms of misleading advertising of AI features to market iPhone 16 models (though this has not been officially ruled on), despite the features still not being available, have caused significant backlash. Possible mounting pressure from investors hoping for Apple to hop on the AI bandwagon could have forced Apple to lose their vision of what Apple Intelligence was supposed to be, and made them clearly emphasize time over quality.
At WWDC 2025, it was clear that they felt the need to take a step back, as the event was centered around their new design for the OSes: Liquid Glass. This new design language refreshes Apple's operating systems with a new look that adds depth (similar to skeuomorphism) back into the OSes. It was announced at WWDC 2025 and was the main focus, with Apple Intelligence only being touched on lightly with some minor improvements.
Liquid Glass was pioneered and demonstrated during WWDC 2025 mainly by Alan Dye, one of the executives resigning. He is moving on to work as Chief Design Officer for Meta. While Liquid Glass has not gotten nearly the same hate and backlash that Apple Intelligence has, it has certainly not been taken well.
Reports of difficulty in distinction between objects in the operating system, along with confusingly and annoyingly contrasting textures with the new design have plagued the operating system. The most confusing piece of Liquid Glass, however, is the lack of consistency. Some portions of the operating systems are completely redesigned, with fully Liquid Glass buttons and UI elements, while others still look flat and dull. It is this that makes the operating system so perplexing looking in the first place.
However, despite this backlash, Apple has been quick to respond. This could be because of what they have seen with Apple Intelligence, and they know that now it is better to respond and fix it, rather than letting it stagnate and blow over. Either way, they released new updates in iOS 26.1, allowing users to tint UI elements to make them easier to distinguish. While this has certainly not revitalized the image of Liquid Glass, it has brought it back to being an okay addition, rather than a horrible one.
This makes Alan Dye's departure all the more confusing. It makes sense why John Giannandrea, SVP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, would leave Apple due to the ongoing turmoil that is Apple Intelligence. But why would Dye leave after pioneering his major new design breakthrough? Some might attribute it to the lack of success of the design mentioned earlier, but it is almost more likely that it comes from a new structure of leadership.
Along with these 4 departures, Apple also announced that Jennifer Newstead, Chief Legal Officer at Meta, would be joining Apple as their General Counsel in March of 2026. This signals a clear reorganization of the structure of Apple and how it operates.
This could be simply due to the issues they have been having regarding their platforms, but it is most likely because of Tim Cook's departure. It is clear that Tim Cook runs Apple in a unique way, and his highly anticipated departure could possibly be soon enough, though no timeline has been confirmed, that executives are leaving to make room for the new era of Apple under new leadership.
This is one of the most significant staffing changes at Apple since Steve Jobs' death and Tim Cook's subsequent takeover of the job, and it is clear that things need to change to brace for the impact that people have been anticipating for years.
Apple is losing executives left and right and it is clear that Apple is reorganizing in some way. We will have to wait and see what Apple does soon.
