Apple Is Cutting Jobs From Its Vision Pro Headset and Siri Assistant Teams

Apple has cut more than 200 jobs across its Vision Pro and Siri software teams, according to a report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman published August 21, 2026. The layoffs affect roughly 100 positions in each division and span teams working on Siri, AI software, and Vision Pro hardware and content groups.

Within the Vision Pro organization, Apple is largely eliminating its gaming team and scaling back the team responsible for immersive video content, per Bloomberg. Immersive video is a type of media that surrounds the viewer, designed specifically for viewing inside a headset. The company reportedly determined that the high cost of producing this content is not justified given the limited number of Vision Pro users. The device retails at $3,699 and has been hampered by a cumbersome user experience, factors that have kept the number of buyers low.

On the Siri side, the cuts target teams working on the older version of the assistant. Apple is building a new version of Siri using technology similar to what powers ChatGPT — systems that generate human-like text by learning from large amounts of written material. This new approach requires different skills than the team needed to maintain the old version. The layoffs are therefore not a uniform reduction but a reallocation: roles tied to technologies Apple is moving away from are being eliminated while hiring continues in areas aligned with the company's current AI plans.

Apple acknowledged the cuts and framed them as a realignment driven by a changing product mix. In a statement reported by Engadget, the company said the change would impact a limited number of existing roles and that affected employees would have opportunities to apply for other positions internally.

Despite the reductions, Apple told employees that Vision Pro and visionOS — the software that runs the headset — are not going away. The company still plans a new Vision Pro model for release as early as 2028, according to Gurman's reporting. That timeline is consistent with a 2025 Bloomberg report that Apple had shelved a more immediate successor to the Vision Pro to prioritize development of AI smart glasses, similar to those already offered by Meta, redirecting hardware investment toward a product with broader consumer appeal.

The job cuts fit a pattern of trimming resources from products that have not met internal adoption or revenue projections. The Vision Pro's content ecosystem depends on exclusive media experiences to justify its price, but immersive video production is expensive and the audience is small. Cutting the gaming group and reducing the immersive video team suggests Apple has concluded that the return on investing in custom content is too low to sustain at current scale. The Siri cuts follow a different logic: the older assistant's technology is being replaced, and the engineering skills required to maintain it do not transfer easily to the new AI system Apple is building.

For Apple's developer community, the Vision Pro signals are mixed. The company is not abandoning the platform, but the content production pipeline is narrowing. Developers building games or immersive experiences for the headset will likely face fewer first-party Apple titles alongside their own, which could make it harder for users to discover and value third-party apps. On the Siri side, the direction is clearer: Apple is consolidating around its new AI system and winding down investment in the assistant's older technology.

The broader context here is that Apple's AI strategy is the driving force behind both sets of cuts. The company is redirecting engineering staff toward new artificial intelligence initiatives, which aligns with competitive pressure from Google, Meta, and Microsoft. The Siri restructuring is the more consequential of the two: it signals that Apple is accelerating the transition from its conventional voice assistant to a new system, and is willing to let go of people who know the old platform inside out in order to staff the new one. Whether that bet pays off depends on Apple's ability to deliver a next-generation Siri that matches or exceeds rival assistants, something the company has not yet shown it can do.

The Vision Pro situation is more straightforward. Apple launched a premium headset at a price that limited how many people would buy it, built content teams to serve that small audience, and is now shrinking those teams. The headset line survives, but on a slower timeline, with a new model not expected until 2028 at the earliest. In the meantime, the company is shifting hardware investment toward smart glasses, a category where Meta has already established a foothold with consumers.

Taken together, these cuts are a measured contraction, not a retreat. Apple is narrowing its bets on two fronts where returns have been slow to materialize, while concentrating resources on the AI initiative it sees as central to its next wave of products. The affected employees number in the low hundreds at a company with roughly 160,000 workers, but the strategic signals carry more weight than the headcount.