Apple’s “more personalized” version of Siri is delayed until 2026. The enhanced voice assistant, which leverages AI for greater contextual awareness, was first shown at WWDC 2024 and originally scheduled for a 2025 launch.
According to Apple, Siri has already gained a ton of AI functionality. And this is more or less true—Siri behaves more like a chatbot, providing back-and-forth conversations when users need to look up information, build shopping lists, control HomeKit devices, and perform other tasks. The voice assistant can also tap into ChatGPT, if necessary.
But these are just simple, straightforward improvements to Siri’s existing functionality. Apple hopes to make more radical changes to its voice assistant by implementing AI-powered personalization features. During WWDC 2024, the company showed how Siri could locate items or information from your inbox, understand the contextual implications of names or locations, and interact directly with apps.
Here’s a quick snippet of Apple’s WWDC 2024 sales pitch for those who need a refresher:
“Can’t remember if a friend shared that recipe with you in a note, a text, or an email? Need your passport number while booking a flight? Siri can use its knowledge of the information on your device to help find what you’re looking for, without compromising your privacy.”
Conceptually, the “more personalized” Siri isn’t all that different from the AI ideals espoused by Google or Microsoft. Tech leaders believe that AI-integrated operating systems will fundamentally change the “human-computer interface,” and while I’m not sold on the idea (and hate the term “human-computer interface”), it’s clear that deep AI integration can be beneficial in some contexts.
The Reason for the Delay: AI Is Hard
Every tech company has over-promised and under-delivered their AI products. It’s not just Apple. Yeah, the world feels pretty fast these days, but it took two years for Microsoft to fart out a Copilot app that runs natively in Windows. Don’t even get me started on Apple’s embarrassing notification summaries.
Apple’s explanation for its AI-enhanced Siri delay comes down to “oops, this is really hard to do,” which isn’t too surprising. The company has tasked itself with overhauling a 13-year-old voice assistant, which is a monumental challenge even without all the AI stuff. And, just from a quality control perspective, AI is notoriously imperfect. An AI assistant that digs through your emails and text messages needs to be at least somewhat reliable.
An Apple spokesperson provided the following statement to Daring Fireball:
“Siri helps our users find what they need and get things done quickly, and in just the past six months, we’ve made Siri more conversational, introduced new features like type to Siri and product knowledge, and added an integration with ChatGPT. We’ve also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.”
For reference, enhanced Siri functionality is not included in the current iOS or macOS developer betas. Some analysts speculated that the features would arrive in a mid-2025 beta release, while others took on more cynical, critical assumptions—Apple Intelligence products are always delayed, why would this Siri integration be any different?
Apple rarely announces product delays. When we do learn of a product delay, it’s usually by inference—Apple fails to mention a product at an important launch event, so we assume that the product is behind schedule (I give my condolences to AirPower-obsessed readers). Unfortunately for Apple, the AI market boom is driven by intense speculation and timeliness. Publicly-traded tech companies that fail to show progress in AI will be punished. It’s better to show off a couple of mockups, wait a few months, and quietly announce a delay before people start asking questions or shaping the narrative. I should also point out that this delay was announced at the tail end of a exceptionally chaotic trading week.
Anyways, look out for a super-AI-enhanced Siri in 2026. If Apple manages to get this stuff out at the beginning of the year, then it’ll be included in an iOS 19.X update. Otherwise, a September 2026 release alongside iOS 20 is likely.
Source: Apple via Reuters, Daring Fireball
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