On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook had lost confidence in SVP of AI John Giannandrea. In turn, hell no longer be in charge of Siri product development, and now Vision Pro head Mike Rockwell will be taking the lead.While pretty much any news for Siri would be good news at this point, Im optimistic in Mike Rockwells ability to turn Siri around. Ill explain.Rockwells past Siri relationshipDespite not having an AI background, Mike Rockwell seems to have a strong sense of product, and he certainly isnt scared of saying what needs to be said. Prior to the debut of Apple Intelligence, Mike Rockwell believed that voice control could be a critical input method for Apple Vision Pro. Despite this belief, he didnt have much faith in Siri, and even wanted to build an alternative assistant, per a report from The Information:For example, the team building Apples mixed-reality headset, including its leader Mike Rockwell, has expressed disappointment in the demonstrations the Siri team created to showcase how the voice assistant could control the headset, according to two people familiar with the matter. At one point, Rockwells team considered building alternative methods for controlling the device using voice commands, the people said (the headset team ultimately ditched that idea).In the end, the teams did not end up building an alternative voice assistant. However, it serves as a point of reference for how Rockwell felt about Siri.Bloomberg additionally reported that Rockwell hasnt been shy when it came to criticizing Siri, and had been pitching new Siri ideas for years.Rockwells new Siri leadershipPersonally, I feel that Rockwell and his teams laid a very strong foundation for Apple Vision Pro. Sure, the hardware is a bit expensive, but I can see a clear path forward for it. Siri, on the other hand, clearly hasnt had the best leadership. Anything would be an improvement, but Rockwell gives me a specific kind of hope.Furthermore, under Giannandreas leadership, Siri Director Robby Walker had compared Apples latest Siri efforts to setting a world record. A puzzling comparison, to say the least:Walker compared the endeavor to an attempt to swim to Hawaii. We swam hundreds of miles we set a Guinness Book for World Records for swimming distance but we still didnt swim to Hawaii, he said. And we were being jumped on, not for the amazing swimming that we did, but the fact that we didnt get to the destination.One could argue that this was just an encouraging comment for employees. Nonetheless, comparing new Siri features (or rather, the lack thereof) to a setting a Guinness Book for World Records is certainly a choice. Apple was already plenty late to the AI race, and pretending to have set a world record when theres been nothing but delays isnt the type of leadership thatll make Siri great.Rockwell is certainly being handed a dumpster fire, so I dont expect his new role to necessarily be easy. Hopefully therell be a more positive Siri story to share by WWDC25.My favorite Apple accessories on Amazon:Follow Michael:X/Twitter,Bluesky,InstagramAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel