Apple's Next CEO Must Win the AI Battle

Introduction: The Triumphs and Regrets of the Cook Era

Tim Cook is undeniably a great CEO. During his more than a decade at the helm of Apple, the company's market capitalization soared from under $400 billion to over $3 trillion. The iPhone continued to dominate the premium smartphone market, Apple Watch carved out a new wearable device category, and the services business grew into a behemoth generating over $80 billion in annual revenue. Yet in the critical battle of artificial intelligence — the contest that will define the tech landscape for the next decade — Cook has failed to deliver a convincing answer.

Now, as discussions about Apple's leadership succession intensify, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus is widely regarded as the most likely successor. The first order of business before him is not launching the next iPhone, but shipping a truly killer AI product.

The Core Problem: Apple's AI Predicament

Looking back at the AI race over the past two years, Apple's performance can only be described as "a step behind." When OpenAI's ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, Google swiftly launched Gemini, Microsoft poured tens of billions of dollars into AI and embedded Copilot across its entire product line, Meta open-sourced its Llama family of large models, and even Samsung aggressively promoted AI features in its Galaxy phones. Apple, meanwhile, didn't officially unveil its "Apple Intelligence" strategy until WWDC 2024, and the initial batch of features fell far short of user expectations.

Siri — the product that once pioneered the voice assistant category — looks particularly awkward in the age of ChatGPT. Users expect a truly context-aware intelligent assistant capable of executing complex tasks, yet Siri still frequently stumbles through basic conversations. Apple has had to integrate ChatGPT into its system as a supplementary solution, which is itself a strategic concession.

The deeper issue is that Apple's accumulation at the AI infrastructure level is clearly insufficient. The company lacks a top-tier homegrown large language model, its cloud computing reserves pale in comparison to those of Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, and it is not the most attractive employer in the AI talent war. Cook's longstanding emphasis on "privacy first" has earned user trust, but it has also objectively constrained Apple's room to maneuver in cloud-based AI training and data utilization.

Deep Dive: Why Ternus Is the Key Figure

The high expectations placed on John Ternus are inseparable from his hardware DNA. In Apple's business logic, AI should never be a standalone cloud service product — it must be deeply integrated with hardware to create differentiated experiences that only the Apple ecosystem can deliver. This is precisely Ternus's forte.

He spearheaded the rollout of Apple's custom M-series chips, drove the full migration of Apple Silicon from Mac to iPad, and was the core driving force behind the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. If Apple's future AI breakthrough lies in on-device intelligence — running powerful AI models locally on devices rather than relying on the cloud — then Ternus's deep understanding of chip architecture and hardware capabilities will be his greatest advantage.

In fact, the most promising path for Apple to achieve AI differentiation right now is precisely "on-device AI." Leveraging the increasingly powerful Neural Engine in its A-series and M-series chips, Apple has the opportunity to run high-quality AI models directly on user devices while naturally solving privacy concerns. This "device as AI" philosophy aligns perfectly with Apple's longstanding product ethos.

But hardware alone is far from enough. Ternus will need to build or consolidate a world-class AI software team, reconstruct Siri's underlying architecture from the ground up, and create at least one AI-driven product so compelling that consumers feel they "must upgrade." This could be a truly intelligent pair of AR glasses, a completely reborn Siri 2.0, or an entirely new product form factor we haven't yet imagined.

Industry Comparison: Competitors Won't Wait

The competitive pressure Apple faces is unprecedented. Google has deeply integrated Gemini into the Android system, its search engine, and the Workspace productivity suite, forming a complete cloud-to-edge AI loop. Microsoft, through its strategic partnership with OpenAI, has seized a first-mover advantage in the enterprise AI market, with Copilot reshaping how hundreds of millions of people work. Samsung has been the first in the consumer electronics space to turn features like AI translation and AI photography into selling points.

Even more concerning is the emergence of AI hardware startups. Although the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 performed poorly in their early stages, these attempts represent a trend: AI may give rise to entirely new hardware categories, not merely feature upgrades for existing devices. If Apple cannot lead this trend, it risks being disrupted — just as the iPhone once disrupted Nokia.

Outlook: Apple AI's Race Against Time

For Apple, 2025 and 2026 will be a decisive window. If Ternus successfully assumes the CEO role, he will need to present a clear AI product roadmap within his first 12 to 18 months and launch at least one product that dazzles the market.

Apple is not without cards to play for a comeback. Over 2.2 billion active Apple devices worldwide constitute an unrivaled distribution network, the App Store ecosystem provides a natural platform for third-party AI applications, and Apple's brand trust among consumers remains second to none. The key question is whether the new CEO can convert these advantages into product competitiveness for the AI era.

History has proven that Apple's greatest strength has never been "doing it first," but "doing it best." Apple was not the first to make an MP3 player, not the first to make a smartphone, and not the first to make a tablet — but the iPod, iPhone, and iPad each redefined their respective categories. If Ternus can replicate this pattern in AI — not aiming to be the earliest, but striving to be the best — Apple may still come from behind to take the lead.

But time is becoming Apple's greatest enemy. The pace of AI iteration far exceeds that of any previous technological revolution, and the window for Apple to take its time and perfect its craft is shrinking rapidly. Ternus must find a balance between pursuing perfection and seizing the initiative — and that will be the ultimate test he faces as Apple's next CEO.