John Ternus talks CEO offer, AI potential, more in new interview

Apple CEO John Ternus said generative AI makes this "the most exciting time in my career to be building products" during a new interview with Clique TV's Mouloud Achour published over the weekend. Ternus, who described being asked by Tim Cook to consider the CEO role as "pretty mind-blowing," said Apple is leveraging generative AI "in different ways to build new experiences, new products, new capabilities." The interview also covered Apple Vision Pro, iOS 27's new parental controls, the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro, and Apple's health work.

In a lengthy new interview with Clique TV https://youtu.be/543zTHAylEY?si=0gSO3DwJ9Un4q5W4 , Apple CEO John Ternus answered a range of questions covering what excites him about the future, how technology is used in his family, the offer to become CEO, his views on Vision Pro, and more. New John Ternus interview covers wide range of topics as Apple CEO role begins Clique TV’s Mouloud Achour and Apple’s new CEO John Ternus sat down for an interview last week, which was just published https://youtu.be/543zTHAylEY?si=0gSO3DwJ9Un4q5W4 over the weekend. Ternus discusses a wide range of topics in the interview, including giving a great defense https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/21/john-ternus-just-gave-the-best-defense-yet-for-vision-pro/ of Apple Vision Pro. As one of his first major interviews as CEO, he is of course asked about that transition. On being asked to become Apple’s new CEO Well, I think when when Tim asked me if it was something I would consider, I would say the good news is I was sitting down laughter because I never in a million years would have imagined that happening. To me it’s always just been: be here, focus on the work, build great things, love every minute of it. To be given this opportunity, to be asked about it was pretty mind-blowing. It’s beyond words. Ternus is also asked about the important lessons he learned from his predecessors, Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. He’s asked for specific quotes from Apple’s former leaders that drive him, but Ternus offers something a little different. He says: What’s kind of the most important lesson I’ve learned from both of them is “focus on the future.” Right? That’s what we do. You know, yesterday was an amazing day. It was so exciting. We launched a product. Today it’s onto the future, onto the next thing. On the future he’s envisioning at Apple, which includes AI I think what’s what’s really interesting about this moment is with AI…generative AI, it is a really powerful technology that means this is the most exciting time in my career to be building products because there’s so many new things we can do, things that previously were just science fiction. And so we’re really excited about, like I said before, taking that technology and leveraging it in different ways to build new experiences, new products, new capabilities, and it’s going to be fun. On the role of technology for children Ternus also talks about the role of technology, and the iPhone specifically, for children. He touts iOS 27‘s new parental controls https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/14/heres-whats-new-with-parental-control-features-in-ios-27-ipados-27-and-macos-27/ that just launched. But when Achour mentions how some tech leaders don’t let their kids use phones or computers, Ternus says: Well, I can’t quite relate to that because my kids use them. But it’s something that as a family, we talked about a lot, right? And we managed a lot, and we said, “Here is the time when you can be using these things and these are the things you can use them for, and here are the times when you shouldn’t be on your device.” The full interview is well worth giving a watch https://youtu.be/543zTHAylEY?si=DO1-YEZog2l0LGvi . Additional topics covered include the newly unveiled iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro, whether iPhone users should upgrade models each year, Apple’s involvement in health, and more. What are your takeaways from the new John Ternus interview? Let us know in the comments. Best iPhone accessories FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. https://9to5mac.com/about/ affiliate our homepage http://9to5mac.com/ for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on exclusive stories https://9to5mac.com/feature/exclusive/ , reviews https://9to5mac.com/guides/review/ , how-tos https://9to5mac.com/guides/how-to/ , and subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/9to5mac