During Apple’s big Fall hardware event yesterday, one thing that stood out – besides the new iPhone 18 line – was its commitment to Apple Intelligence. First announced at the Spring WWDC event, Apple Intelligence will permeate Apple devices and apps, bringing more AI and automation into the mix.
This includes (finally) making Siri more functional. The beleaguered personal assistant app will get a brain transplant, including better underlying language models and richer contextual understanding. It will also get a cosmetic makeover with lit-up screen edges, rather than its current spinning orb.
Siri’s improvements will be seen far and wide, such as AirPod experiences that let users shake or nod in response to Siri’s outputs. And developers will get access to SiriKit to integrate Apple Intelligence features into their own apps. This should breed a new set of creative functions in the app economy.
But perhaps most notable is visual search. Using the iPhone 18’s new dedicated camera button, users can quickly activate visual search. This includes pointing your phone at something to contextualize it. For example, point your phone at a restaurant in your neighborhood to see its menu or make a reservation.
Under the Hood
One of the keywords above is “integrate.” Apple Intelligence will sit at the OS layer where it can tap into functionality across apps and experiences on your iPhone (or any iThing). For example, Apple says it can operate across mail and maps to find a dinner invitation in your inbox and help you navigate to the event.
Going further under the hood, Apple Intelligence will, again, give Siri better natural language understanding. This flows from Apple’s partnership with ChatGPT. In fact, OpenAI’s Spring Update event spent ample time demonstrating how GPT-4o is getting quite good at conversational interactions.
Siri will also now be able to answer questions about what’s on your screen at any given time, as well as perform tasks across apps. For example, in the above dinner party example, you can tell Siri to find the email, text the address to another friend, then open it in Apple Maps and save the directions for later.
Bottom line: Apple Intelligence pulls personal assistant functions away from Siri and puts them in the hands of a real professional (ChatGPT). In some ways that demotes Siri to just a front-end interface. But that’s where it belongs – delivering the right answers to Apple users, rather than frustrating moments.
Achilles Heel
Another thing that Apple revealed in all the above is Siri’s fate as a product. It answers the question we posed last year: Is AppleGPT the Death Knell for Siri? Our premise was that there’s no way the famously-dysfunctional Siri survives a face-off with a GPT-based challenger. So it will be replaced or upgraded.
It’s clear now that Apple has chosen the latter and, as noted, gave it a brain transplant. This is likely the right call as it avoids walking away from Siri’s brand equity. More importantly, killing Siri would be cumbersome in ripping it away from its integrations across iOS, MacOS, tvOS, and other OSs.
After WWDC and yesterday’s event, this answer is more evident than ever. Siri will avoid being taken out to the woodshed and instead get the brain surgery treatment. This is in keeping with Apple Intelligence’s broader approach – again, to be integrated and layered into products across Apple’s ecosystem.
This is good news for billions of Apple users who’ve endured years of disappointment with Siri. We’ll still have to wait until next month before the brain transplant is complete but if done right, it will be worth the wait. This could help Apple move past and recover from its years-long Achilles heel.
