Apple CEO Succession Scorecard: AI Readiness of Internal Candidates

An assessment of Apple’s internal CEO candidates on AI leadership readiness.

Table of Contents

Candidate Comparison

Candidate	Role	Age	AI Readiness
Jeff Williams	COO	62	Low
Craig Federighi	SVP Software	58	Medium
John Ternus	SVP Hardware	50	Medium (hardware only)

Criterion	Williams	Federighi	Ternus
Built foundation model org	No	No	No
Shipped competitive LLM	No	No	No
Recruited AI research talent	No	No	No
Led AI transformation	No	No	No
Technical AI understanding	Low	Medium	Medium

Williams	Federighi	Ternus
Operational continuity	Software platform expertise	Silicon architecture
Cook’s trust	Developer relations	Hardware-AI inference
Board confidence	Public communication	Younger tenure potential

None of the obvious internal candidates have the AI expertise Apple needs.

Apple optimized for continuity in a moment that demands reinvention.

This analysis is part of a comprehensive report. Read the full analysis: Apple’s Post-Tim Cook AI Challenge on The Business Engineer.