Once upon a time in In a year or two, Apple’s recent CEO, John Ternus, will take the stage and tell the world that his company has a revolutionary product. This product, he will say, will make the full and amazing power of artificial intelligence available to everyone. It probably won’t be a breakthrough in artificial intelligence research, and it may not allow people to automate their work or perform tasks better than many technically minded people do today. It may or may not involve a recent device, but if it doesn’t, it should be in development. But if all goes well, this keynote will mark the moment when Apple did to artificial intelligence what it did to desktop computers, the Internet, mobile technology, wearables and music distribution. This means that it will offer a solution to the troublesome technology that is so delightful and… Normal that in hindsight it seems obvious.
This is not optional for Ternus. While artificial intelligence is undoubtedly the future and millions of people exploit it, even more people are suspicious of it. Powerful recent AI agent technologies like Claude Code and OpenClaw are still too risky or technical for most people to adopt. If Apple doesn’t decode this for the masses, someone else will. Current CEO Tim Cook, who announced this week that he would step down from his position in September and become the company’s chairman of the board, has done an excellent job leading the company after Steve Jobs, but he left this essential box unchecked. Apple Intelligence, launched with great fanfare in 2024, has proven to be disappointing and incomplete.
Can Ternus graze such product? It’s tough to say because the current vice president of hardware engineering has spent most of his career out of the public eye. It was only recently that he began giving more press interviews when it became clear that he was a leading candidate to take over Cook’s position. People see him as a methodical operator like Cook, as opposed to a visionary like Jobs, but that may be due to a similar, reserved demeanor. Maybe once he takes the highest position, he will be free and able to reach for the sky.
My own interactions with him were occasional. Ten years ago, I spent a day with him and his team in the Apple Entry Lab. “I started in 2001 and have been fortunate to work on many of our products over the years,” he told me by way of introduction. That day, he delved into topics such as quantum dots, the environmental impact of cadmium, and the fact that “not all white light is created equal.” It was clear he was likeable; there was a lot of humorous banter between him and his team.
Much recently, I questioned Ternus and global marketing chief Greg Joswiak about Apple’s future, specifically its plans to get ahead of its AI transformation. Ternus acknowledged that artificial intelligence is a “huge turning point,” but described it as one of many leaps Apple has made. Every hit product – Apple II, Mac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad – was based on a previous product. “We never think about shipping technology,” he said. “We want to deliver amazing products, features and experiences, but we don’t want our customers to wonder what [underlying] technology makes this possible. This is how we think about artificial intelligence.”
Okay, but it takes me back to the mid-2000s when everyone was waiting for Apple to release a phone. When Jobs finally shipped in January 2007, the product defined the mobile era. It’s a massive ask for Ternus to do something similar for the AI era, but it’s an opportunity that must be seized. Artificial intelligence threatens to disrupt the entire iPhone ecosystem. It’s unlikely that people will be swiping on their phones to click on Uber or Lyft by the end of this decade. They will simply tell their always-active AI agent to take them home. Or the agent will already know where to go and the car will be waiting without unnecessary questions. “There is an app for that” can be replaced with “Let an agent do it.”