“Apple Delays Major AI Enhancements for Siri Until 2026”
By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) – Apple announced on Friday that certain artificial intelligence upgrades for its voice assistant Siri will be postponed until 2026. The company explained that it is working on a more personalized Siri with increased awareness of users’ personal context and the capability to perform actions within and across apps. Apple stated that the delivery of these features will take longer than expected, with plans to roll them out in the upcoming year.
Apple did not provide a specific reason for the delays, having initially planned to introduce the features in 2025. The previous year, Apple introduced a suite of AI-powered features known as Apple Intelligence, which included functionalities like rewriting emails and organizing cluttered inboxes. These enhancements were designed to enable Siri to seamlessly navigate apps and complete tasks for users by accessing information stored on Apple devices.
Apple’s examples included instructing Siri to retrieve a podcast recommended by a friend or display flight tracking details from a family member, all based on data stored on the device. The company has been establishing an extensive cloud computing infrastructure powered by its own chips to maintain user privacy while offering advanced AI features. Apple has reported that Siri handles 1.5 billion user requests daily.
In a race to enhance their voice assistants with AI capabilities, Apple’s competitors such as Google and Amazon have also made significant strides. Google integrated its Gemini model into its assistant last year, while Amazon recently unveiled an AI-driven update for Alexa, offering the new functionalities for free to Prime subscribers and at a monthly fee of $19.99 for others.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Nia Williams)
