Apple Pauses Plan to Replace 5,000 AppleCare Staff with AI, Trims Management Under New CEO

Apple Pauses AppleCare AI Replacement Plan

Apple has paused a plan that would have replaced about 5,000 AppleCare support staff with AI, according to a Bloomberg report cited by News18. The plan, which had been considered as part of an AI integration strategy, is now on hold indefinitely, MacRumors reported. The company is no longer looking to proceed with it at present.

The original idea was that AI-powered phone and web agents could take over part of the work done by AppleCare employees. Separately, Apple already routes AppleCare phone calls in the US and Canada to an AI assistant. MacRumors dates that rollout to August.

Management Cuts Under CEO John Ternus

Under new CEO John Ternus, Apple is reportedly planning to remove some middle-management positions to shorten the distance between engineers and senior executives. Engineering program managers in the hardware division may be let go. About half a dozen directors, a senior employee level at Apple, may have been affected.

Ternus wants Apple to ship products more often and to move away from its fixed spring and autumn launch pattern. He took over as CEO on September 1. Tim Cook became executive chairman, per Apple’s April announcement.

Earlier Layoffs in 2026

The management cuts follow earlier rounds of job reductions at Apple. On August 21, Bloomberg reported that Apple was cutting more than 200 roles. About 100 came from the Vision Pro team, and about 100 from Siri and Intelligent Systems Experience teams. Apple said at the time that while it would create new roles as part of the change, it would also impact a limited number of existing roles. Local reports put the Bay Area figure at 147 jobs.

On September 21, Gurman reported a smaller round on the Fitness+ team. It hit a handful of staff who worked on audio sessions such as Time to Walk and Time to Run. The reports reviewed do not say whether any India-based staff are affected.

Distinguishing AI Attribution from Other Restructuring

The paused AppleCare plan was directly linked to AI replacement, with AI-powered agents envisioned to take over part of the support work. The management cuts, however, are described as a restructuring effort to shorten the distance between engineers and senior executives and to change product launch patterns, not as an AI-driven replacement. The earlier August and September layoffs were reported without explicit AI attribution in the source packet. The 5,000 figure refers to the number of AppleCare staff that Apple had weighed replacing with AI, not to announced job cuts. The plan is on hold, and no layoffs of that scale have been announced as proceeding.

Sources

• Apple Layoffs: CEO Ternus To ‘Fire’ Managers, Plans To Replace 5,000 AppleCare Staff With AI On Hold- Bloomberg | Tech News - News18