Industry insiders, speaking to a leading news outlet today (April 21), shared what they believe is the real reason Tim Cook is stepping down as Apple CEO after 15 years.

John Ternus, the current head of hardware engineering and a 25-year company veteran, will replace Cook.

Apple said that the move “follows a thoughtful, long-term succession planning process,” but sources disagreed.

One of them described Cook’s departure as a “stunner,” noting it was not expected to occur until late next year.

Tim Cook’s exit as Apple CEO is reportedly linked to the company’s escalating AI ambitions

Image credits: Getty/Justin Sullivan

The Daily Mail, citing industry experts, reported that Cook’s decision to hand over his position to Ternus may be linked to the underwhelming rollout of Apple’s suite of generative AI features, branded Apple Intelligence, across its operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, visionOS, and watchOS.

The system was announced in 2024 and was hailed by the company as a “new chapter in Apple innovation.”

Image credits: Unsplash

However, it soon faced significant criticism for slow implementation and the absence of advanced capabilities.

Per industry experts, Apple executives felt the 65-year-old CEO did not have what it takes to lead the company through the AI transition.

Image credits: Apple

Rebecca Crook, head of tech consultancy MSG DX, said, “Apple’s setbacks in AI have been a consistent focal point, with analysts pressing Cook repeatedly on whether the company was prepared for a future beyond the iPhone.”

“When a CEO finds themselves on the back foot about the most strategically critical technology of the decade, that’s always going to be tough.”

Image credits: Apple

Ben Wood, chief marketing officer at CCS Insight, said, “AI is widely regarded as an area where Tim Cook made a decision to let others, such as Google Gemini, and OpenAI with ChatGPT, take a lead.”

According to him, with Cook now stepping down, “all eyes will be on Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June to learn more about the company’s plans in this area, particularly what it does with Siri.”

Image credits: Apple

Dan Ives, global head of tech research at Wedbush Securities, was the one who called Cook’s departure surprising, adding that he was expected to hold the position for at least another year and a half.

Cook, notably, will not be leaving Apple Inc. entirely.

He will stay on as executive chairman of the company’s board of directors, handling its geopolitical connections with world leaders.

Experts have expressed high expectations for Apple’s incoming CEO

Image credits: Apple

Crook told the Daily Mail, “The AI era requires a different kind of leadership — one that’s closer to the product and the engineering.”

“Choosing John Ternus, a hardware engineer with 25 years at Apple, signals the company believes the future of AI will run through tightly integrated devices, not software,” she added.

Analysts suggested that Cook may share this sentiment, choosing to focus his attention where it would be more useful while leaving innovation to Ternus.

“Cook is too smart and too controlled to be pushed, but he’s also astute enough to know when the era that suits him best has passed.”

Crook said, “Stepping aside now, while Apple is a $4 trillion company, is the power move that protects his legacy far better than clinging on through a difficult AI cycle.”

Image credits: Getty/David Paul Morris

Ternus is expected to take a much more centralized position as a decision-maker, given his tendency to choose one of the two solutions presented. This is a quality Cook allegedly lacked.

A person who had worked with both executives told Bloomberg: “If you go to Cook with A or B, he won’t pick. He’ll ask a series of questions instead.”

Image credits: Getty/Bloomberg

Ternus, on the other hand, picks one. “It could be right or wrong, but at least it’s a decision,” they said.

Within Apple, there is reportedly a feeling that Ternus’s leadership style could bring the company back to something resembling its organization under co-founder Steve Jobs.

Cook wrote an emotional letter to the Apple community following the announcement of his departure

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Cook opened up about his time at Apple the same day (Monday, April 20) it was announced he would be succeeded by John Ternus.

He admitted that, in his heart, the role of Apple CEO was the “best job in the world.”

He recalled receiving emails and messages from Apple users who loved using the company’s products, writing, “You share little pieces of your lives with me and tell me things you want me to know about how Apple has touched you.”

Image credits: Apple

The Apple chief noted he was grateful to lead a company that had made consumers’ lives better.

“I feel a gratitude that I cannot put into words, that I somehow got to be the person on the other end of those emails, the leader of a company that ignites imaginations and enriches lives in such profound ways it defies description. What an honor and privilege it has been,” he penned.

Image credits: Apple

Cook went on to say John Ternus was “the perfect person” to replace him, given his vast experience at the organization.

He called the soon-to-be Apple CEO “a brilliant engineer and thinker who has spent the past 25 years building the Apple products our users love so much, obsessed with every detail, focused on every possible way we can make something better, bolder, more beautiful, and more meaningful.”

Cook insisted Apple would reach new heights in its new era with Ternus at the helm, expressing, “I can’t wait for you to get to know him like I do.”

“Tim Cook was most likely one of the greatest CEOs of our era,” a netizen said 

Apple just named its next CEO, who will be taking the reins fromTim Cook this fall: longtime insider John Ternus. He inherits the $4 trillion company that became a global icon under late cofounder Steve Jobs, and Cook says he’d offer his successor the same advice Jobs gave him when he stepped into the top role: Never ask what I would do, just do the right thing.

“I would probably say the same thing,” Cook told the Wall Street Journal just weeks before the succession announcement. “Because you can get in paralysis if you start trying to port yourself into somebody else’s thinking.”

Ternus, who currently serves as Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, will take the helm on Sept. 1. Meanwhile, Cook’s 15-year stint as CEO of the tech giant will come to an end as he transitions to executive chairman of the board. Although the tech industry looked a whole lot different when Cook stepped into the top job in 2011—AirPods were still years away from hitting the market—he has never wavered from Jobs’ leadership lesson. And now, he’s passing down the same wisdom in welcoming the next face of Apple.

“I would say: ‘Be yourself, keep a firm North Star on the values of the company,’” Cook continued. “Because if you get the values right, if you keep the North Star in clear view, you may be blown off course a little bit, but eventually you will come back to the right path. I have always found that to be true.”

Fortune reached out to Apple for comment.

The advice Jobs gave to Cook after he became CEO

Apple will forever be intertwined with Jobs’ legacy—but the late cofounder didn’t want that to stand in the way of others forging their own path. Just months before his passing, he shared advice with Cook that is now being passed down to Ternus.

“[Jobs’] advice to me was, ‘Never ask what I would do, just do the right thing,’” Cook toldCBS NewsSunday Morning last month.

It was a lesson that Jobs had learned while working with Disney; the Apple cofounder was also one of the three founding fathers of Pixar Animation Studios, purchasing the group from Lucasfilm in 1986. Entertainment behemoth Disney later acquired Pixar in 2006, and during his time working at the business, he picked up on a worrying trend.

“[Jobs] had watched Disney go through this paralysis of sitting around and talking about what Walt [Disney] would do,” Cook explained. “And he did not want that for Apple.”

Over the 15 years since, the outgoing CEO has never forgotten that lesson, and Apple has catapulted to trillion-dollar success. Now, Ternus is tasked with embodying that same philosophy in charting the company’s next era.

“I’ll never forget that, and it was such a gift for me, because he took off of my shoulder this question of, ‘What would Steve do?’” Cook continued. “I just put my head down and thought, ‘I’m going to be the best version of myself.’”

Meet John Ternus, the 51-year-old taking the reins of Apple

After months of speculation, Apple has plucked its successor from its own ranks.

Ternus has devoted nearly his entire professional career to working at Apple. After a brief stint as an engineer at Virtual Research Systems, he first joined Apple’s product design team in 2001, according to his LinkedIn profile. He arrived at a pivotal moment for the company when new innovative products were on the horizon.

By 2013, Ternus was promoted to vice president of hardware engineering, and later climbed to the senior level, joining Apple’s executive team in 2021.

Over his 25-year run, the mechanical engineer has led hardware engineering across Apple’s vast portfolio of products—including AirPods, all generations of iPads, and the latest iPhone release. But Ternus’s technical chops were only part of the appeal; Cook said that he has the “mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and honor.”

“[Ternus] is a visionary whose contributions to Apple over 25 years are already too numerous to count, and he is without question the right person to lead Apple into the future,” Cook said in a statement.

In reaction to the announcement of his appointment as CEO, Ternus said that he is lucky to have worked under Jobs and had Cook as his mentor. Looking ahead, he is “filled with optimism” about what the company can accomplish, and will always stay true to the principles set forth by former Apple leaders.

“I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple’s mission forward,” Ternus said in a statement. “I am humbled to step into this role, and I promise to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com