One looming question as AI advances is what’s the fate of legacy AI assistants like Alexa and Siri. The latter is especially in question, given not only its ubiquity but its notorious underperformance. If anything is due for an upgrade (or execution) it’s the beleaguered AI agent at the heart of Apple’s products.
We continue to see clues trickle out from Apple about how Siri will fare in the AI age. This includes a somewhat confusing mix of orbiting parts including Apple Intelligence’s integration with all-things iOS, and ChatGPT’s role in that mix. So what exactly is Siri’s place in that world? It remains an open question.
After some recent signals that we examined (more on those in a bit), more was revealed this week. Specifically, Bloomberg reports Apple is working on making Siri more conversational. This includes marrying it with large language models to get it up to speed with modern AI standards.
Not only will this give Siri a much-needed brain transplant – or blood transfusion, or whatever anatomical metaphor you prefer – but it could also get a facelift. Specifically Siri’s interface will be updated and modernized, which makes sense to signal to the world that its new and improved.
This form & function upgrade is reportedly scheduled for spring of 2026, so we have a while to wait. But it makes sense as Apple wants to stick with Siri’s integrations throughout its product line, while raising its game. The vertically-integrated Apple also likely plans (our speculation) to ditch ChatGPT at that point.
Stay of Execution
Backing up for context, we published an article last year entitled Is AppleGPT the Death Knell for Siri? It was based on rumors around “Apple GPT,” which ended up being called Apple Intelligence. Our premise was that there’s no way the famously-dysfunctional Siri survives a face-off with a GPT-based challenger.
But the question at the time was if Apple would kill Siri or give it a brain transplant. The former would mean walking away from some brand equity (but mostly brand baggage). More importantly, killing Siri would be cumbersome in pulling it away from embedded functions in iOS, MacOS, tvOS, etc.
After Apple Intelligence was unveiled in June, we got our answer: Siri will not only get a stay of execution but a brain transplant care, of Apple Intelligence. This is in keeping with Apple Intelligence’s broader approach noted above, which is to be integrated and layered into products across Apple’s ecosystem.
This is good news for billions of iThings users who’ve endured years of frustrating moments with Siri. We’ll still have to wait for all of Apple Intelligence’s functionality to be integrated, and for the new & improved Siri to emerge. But a decent amount of new functionality has already been added in iOS 18.1.
Now, we get the details outlined above that brings more clarity to the picture. This will continue to be the case as the famously secretive Apple operates at its own pace. It doesn’t reveal things until they are polished and refined – the opposite of Google and others. Expect the same in its ongoing AI endeavors.
