Apple is cutting more than 200 jobs across teams working on its Siri digital assistant, artificial intelligence software and Vision Pro headset, as the company reallocates resources toward next-generation AI capabilities and new devices.
The restructuring affects roughly 100 positions in the Vision Pro organization and another 100 across Siri and software teams, according to people familiar with the changes cited by Bloomberg. The cuts offer a clearer indication of where Apple sees the strongest opportunities as it attempts to accelerate its AI strategy while reassessing demand for its first major new hardware platform in years.
Apple confirmed that it is reorganizing some teams, although it did not disclose the number of affected employees.
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“We are realigning some teams to evolve our business to deliver the best experiences for our users,” Apple said in a statement. “While we will create new roles as part of this change, it will also impact a limited number of existing roles.”
The company said it would support affected employees during the transition, including allowing them to apply for other positions within Apple.
The Siri-related restructuring is tied to Apple’s effort to build a substantially more capable, AI-powered version of its voice assistant using a new underlying architecture. The shift requires different technical expertise and has prompted Apple to eliminate some existing roles, move employees into other positions, and create new jobs focused on the updated Siri.
The changes are part of a broader transformation underway inside Apple’s software organization. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in operating systems, applications and services, Apple is reorganizing teams around AI capabilities rather than maintaining separate development structures for individual features.
Apple’s Intelligent Systems Experience team, part of its software engineering organization, is also being restructured. The group works on AI-powered capabilities across Apple’s devices, and the company is eliminating some existing positions while creating new roles intended to accelerate AI development.
The restructuring comes at a critical point for Apple.
The company has been under growing pressure to demonstrate that it can close the gap with rivals in generative AI after competitors such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic rapidly expanded the capabilities of their AI systems.
Apple has historically differentiated itself through tightly integrated hardware and software, but its AI strategy has developed more slowly than those of companies whose businesses are built around large language models.
The new Siri architecture is therefore more than a routine software upgrade. It marks Apple’s attempt to rebuild its assistant around modern AI capabilities that can understand context, perform actions across applications and respond more effectively to complex requests.
At the same time, Apple is scaling back parts of its Vision Pro operation. The company is largely shutting down a Vision Pro team focused on gaming and reducing the size of the group responsible for producing immersive video content for the headset.
The changes indicate that Apple is reassessing how it allocates resources around a product that generated considerable excitement when it was unveiled but has struggled to achieve broad consumer adoption.
Vision Pro launched in February 2024 as Apple’s first major new hardware platform in years. The headset introduced high-resolution displays, eye and hand tracking, and a computing interface built around spatial experiences. But its $3,699 price in the United States, weight, and physical limitations have made the device difficult to position as a mass-market consumer product.
The size of the installed user base has also created a problem for Apple’s content strategy.
Immersive video has been one of Vision Pro’s major selling points, but producing high-quality three-dimensional content requires large production crews and specialized equipment. An episode of an immersive video series can cost several million dollars to produce, according to people familiar with the operations.
Those costs are difficult to justify when relatively few consumers are actively using the headset.
Apple is not abandoning immersive content altogether. Instead, it plans to produce fewer videos internally while encouraging third-party developers and production companies to create more content for the platform. The company is also reducing its investment in Vision Pro gaming, reflecting limited adoption of the headset among gamers.
That does not mean Apple is abandoning spatial computing.
Apple has told employees that the Vision Pro and its visionOS operating system will continue to be developed. The more immediate priority, however, is shifting toward smaller and potentially more accessible devices. The company is working on smart glasses that would not initially support the immersive video and advanced gaming experiences associated with Vision Pro.
The move could represent an important change in Apple’s hardware strategy. Rather than attempting to push consumers directly into a $3,699 mixed-reality headset, Apple appears increasingly interested in lighter devices that can bring AI-powered experiences into everyday use without requiring users to wear a large computer over their face.
Smart glasses could also provide Apple with a more natural hardware platform for its AI ambitions. Cameras, microphones, and sensors embedded in glasses can continuously capture information from a user’s surroundings, while an AI assistant can process requests and provide information without requiring the user to reach for a phone.
That could make AI a more central part of Apple’s hardware ecosystem.
Apple is still considering a new Vision Pro model, potentially as early as the end of 2028, according to Bloomberg News. The continued development suggests the company has not abandoned the longer-term potential of spatial computing even as it reduces investment in parts of the current product.
The restructuring therefore appears less like an exit from Vision Pro than a shift in priorities. Apple is reducing spending in areas where adoption has been weaker while redirecting talent toward technologies it considers more strategically important.
That distinction is relevant for Siri.
Apple’s AI challenge is not simply that its existing assistant lacks the capabilities of the latest generative AI systems. The company also needs to integrate AI deeply into an ecosystem used by hundreds of millions of people.
A more capable Siri could potentially control applications, retrieve information across a user’s devices, understand personal context, and execute multi-step tasks. Achieving that requires a different architecture and a different mix of engineering expertise from the systems that powered Apple’s earlier voice assistant.
The job cuts therefore mark a shift in Apple’s technology priorities: fewer resources devoted to maintaining or expanding products and features with limited adoption, and more resources directed toward AI and future hardware.
The timing also matters for Apple’s competitive position.
AI is increasingly becoming the primary battleground among major technology companies, while hardware companies are racing to determine which devices will become the main interface between consumers and AI assistants.
Apple has an enormous installed base of iPhones, Macs, iPads and other devices, giving it a potential distribution advantage. But that advantage will matter only if the company can turn its AI capabilities into products that consumers find substantially more useful.
The restructuring thus indicates that Apple is willing to make difficult internal changes to pursue that objective.
The Vision Pro cuts acknowledge that a premium mixed-reality headset has not yet developed the scale needed to support Apple’s original content ambitions. The Siri and AI restructuring, meanwhile, signals that the company is increasing its focus on the software infrastructure needed for the next generation of AI-powered devices.