John Ternus is set to take the helm of Apple as its incoming chief executive, according to Al Jazeera. He inherits a company with a commanding position in the smartphone market but one that is playing catch-up in artificial intelligence.

The leadership transition comes at a pivotal moment for the technology industry, as AI capabilities increasingly shape the products and services that consumers expect from major device makers. Al Jazeera reports that Apple trails its rivals in this area, setting the stage for one of the central challenges facing the new leadership.

Apple’s strength remains its smartphone business, where the company continues to lead the market. That dominance provides a strong foundation, but the report highlights a gap between Apple’s hardware success and its standing in the emerging AI landscape.

For Ternus, the task ahead will be to reconcile Apple’s market-leading position in smartphones with the growing importance of artificial intelligence, an area where competitors have moved ahead. The details of how the incoming CEO plans to address that gap were not specified in the report.

The scale of the challenge underscores the broader shift underway across the technology sector, where AI has become a defining competitive battleground for the world’s largest companies.