The Genius Bar at an Apple Store in Pudong, Shanghai, in 2011 (illustrative). Image: Haotian0905 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped
Apple recently weighed laying off about 5,000 of its AppleCare customer support staff and handing some of their work to AI, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported on Tuesday. The plan has now been put on hold indefinitely.
What Apple was planning
According to Bloomberg, Apple believed AI-powered phone and web agents could take over some of the tasks done by the support workers who would have lost their jobs. The company is no longer “currently looking to take such a step”, the report said, and it isn’t clear whether the idea could come back.
Apple hasn’t commented publicly on the report. The company doesn’t say how many people work in AppleCare, which covers phone, chat and in-app support for iPhones, Macs and its other products, so it’s hard to know what share of the support workforce 5,000 jobs would have been.
The AI is already answering the phone
Apple has been moving towards AI support for a while. Since earlier this year, many calls to Apple Support’s US and Canadian number, 1-800-APL-CARE, have been answered by an assistant built on generative AI rather than a basic automated menu, MacRumors reported in August. It can walk callers through troubleshooting step by step, and it hands them to a human advisor if it can’t help or if they ask for a real person.
Apple has also been testing an AI chatbot in its Apple Support app for a small number of users. Put together, the plan Bloomberg describes would have been the obvious next step: fewer people, with AI handling the first line of support.
A leaner Apple under Ternus
The AppleCare plan came up as part of a wider shake-up under John Ternus, who took over as CEO from Tim Cook on September 1. Bloomberg reports that Ternus wants Apple to run faster and leaner. Some teams that expected more budget and staff in 2027 have been told headcount will stay flat. About half a dozen directors have been let go in recent weeks, and some early-stage projects are being cancelled so Apple can focus on fewer products and release them more often.
Ternus has said he sees AI as a way to make better products, not a goal in itself, as we noted in our look at how Apple is falling behind in the AI race. Shelving thousands of AI-driven job cuts in his first month fits that more cautious approach, at least for now.
Why it matters
Customer support is one of the first places big companies are trying to replace people with AI agents, and Apple is one of the world’s biggest employers of support staff. That it drew up plans to cut 5,000 jobs shows how seriously it takes the idea, even if it decided the AI, or the backlash, wasn’t worth the risk yet.
Sources: Bloomberg (September 29, 2026), MacRumors (August 26, 2026).
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