Kim Vorrath, Apple’s vice president of program management, is known internally for solving problems that plague the manufacturer’s products. For example, she helped launch the Vision Pro, but that’s not her only feat. The executive also oversaw the management of the software for the very first generation of the iPhone so that it was ready for sale.
The woman behind the scenes who manages crises at Apple
Before 2019, she was the head of project management for the iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems, before joining the ranks of visionOS, the software for the Vision Pro. In her 36-year career at Apple, Kim Vorrath has played the role of firefighter. And that’s probably also what she’ll do within the artificial intelligence and machine learning division. This week, she became the right-hand woman of John Giannandrea, the "AI chief" of the Apple company, Bloomberg announced.
This division is responsible for Siri and Apple Intelligence. It has been clear for several months (years?) that John Giannandrea is having difficulty managing ever-larger teams, with AI having become a major issue and a significant investment for Apple. The arrival of Kim Vorrath in this division is not an innocent move. Siri has been in total decline for years: the assistant was already one train behind Google Assistant and Alexa. ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI bots are putting three stations in its sights.
Giannandrea's group is preparing the new infrastructure that should allow Siri to get back up to speed in the face of very sharp competition; a project that would be completed in 2026. In the meantime, that is to say from this spring, Siri will be entitled to a better understanding of the context, that is to say of what the user does on his iPhone.
It is also necessary to improve the AI models behind Apple Intelligence, whose prowess remains basic — not to mention the problems of disinformation. Apple will also put additional pressure by activating the functions of Apple Intelligence by default with iOS 18.3, even if they are still in beta.
Kim Vorrath has this talent for organizing engineering teams and workflows. His presence seems to be more important than ever at Apple Intelligence.
Source: Bloomberg
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