At this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2025), Apple showcased a broad array of fresh features and updates, headlined by a striking visual design called “Liquid Glass,” alongside a notable rebranding effort across several products. Yet, amidst the significant announcements, one highly anticipated technology remained conspicuously absent: a more personalized, AI-driven version of Apple’s Siri assistant, originally teased one year earlier.
During his keynote speech, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, briefly acknowledged the delay, stating, “As we’ve shared previously, we’re continuing our efforts to deliver the capabilities that will make Siri even more personal. This undertaking requires additional time to meet our rigorous quality standards, and we look forward to sharing further updates in the coming year.”
Federighi’s mention of a “coming year” suggests no significant news around a truly AI-enhanced Siri should be expected before 2026—a significant setback, given today’s relentless pace of AI innovation. This postponement delays Apple’s promised leap forward in improving Siri’s context sensitivity, which was touted at WWDC 2024 as the next substantial evolution in Apple’s virtual assistant. That presentation emphasized Siri’s intended ability to grasp users’ relationships, communication habits, daily routines, and more, leveraging this greater understanding to provide personalized and proactive interactions across multiple apps.
Bloomberg previously reported that the development version of the Siri AI assistant, despite being functional, faced persistent performance challenges. Sources indicated that Siri was correctly completing tasks only about two-thirds of the time, calling into question whether it was ready for a prime-time release given Apple’s stringent quality standards.
Acknowledging these challenges publicly in March, Apple confirmed the delay of the Siri overhaul, underscoring the complexity of the project’s AI ambitions. Alongside postponing the launch, Apple implemented a significant leadership change, moving SVP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, John Giannandrea, away from direct oversight of Siri and instead assigning Mike Rockwell—previously a leader in the company’s Vision Pro division—to manage the project moving forward.
This shift in project leadership highlighted Apple’s struggle to maintain pace with AI advancements made by its rivals, such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Investors have increasingly voiced concerns about Apple’s ability to remain competitive in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence field, hence the pressure to accelerate progress on Siri upgrades.
In the interim, Apple has leaned on partnerships to bridge the gap. For instance, the company has integrated ChatGPT into specific Siri queries where the built-in assistant hits limitations, allowing users to have their unanswered questions redirected seamlessly to OpenAI’s platform. Additionally, Apple confirmed that upcoming updates, like its new AI-enhanced image generation app, Image Playground, will also leverage ChatGPT capabilities.
While the more personalized Siri remains delayed, Apple used WWDC 2025 to underscore broader moves towards expanded AI capabilities, including deeper developer access to its on-device foundation models and significant improvements across various AI-powered services. These included new features like Live Translation support for Messages, FaceTime, and phone calls; enhancements to its Genmoji avatars; and more sophisticated Visual Intelligence tools. Apple also unveiled an AI-driven Workout Buddy app for Apple Watch users, upgraded AI components in Xcode for developers, and launched an elevated, AI-powered version of the Shortcuts app, aimed at streamlining automation tasks and scripting.
Despite these wider AI-related initiatives underway at Apple, the continued postponement of a groundbreaking Siri overhaul underscores the company’s broader struggle to keep up with escalating market expectations around artificial intelligence and intelligent virtual assistants.
