Months before his scheduled September 1 handoff to incoming CEO John Ternus, Apple chief executive Tim Cook used the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in Apple Park, Cupertino, to unveil a privacy-first overhaul of its voice assistant, Siri.
Originally launched by Cook in October 2011 — well before Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant debuted — Siri’s new AI capabilities promise to reshape how users interact with smartphones and beyond.
Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice-president of software engineering, said: “privacy and AI are non-negotiable.” Siri, which now has a dedicated app, has been rebuilt with Apple Intelligence at its core.
Built atop Google’s Gemini technology and using next-gen Apple Foundation Models, the company’s AI-driven vision promises a secure, personal experience across the hardware ecosystem, allowing Siri to parse local data, like cross-referencing emails and notes to draft messages or scanning calendars, to proactively prevent overlapping appointments.
Crucially, while rivals like Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon face global pushback over controversial data centre expansions, Apple has instead leaned on its default search partners, Safari and Google.
The turbo-charged Siri AI aims to mainstream AI without making users feel like they are merely interacting with a transactional chatbot. It will make iPhones, which continue to find expanding audiences in key markets like India, feel significantly less static. When the software features launch later this year for the public alongside new hardware as part of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and watchOS 27, users will gain a modern search experience capable of recalling prior queries and securely accessing device data for highly contextual, personalised responses.
“The arrival of agentic AI is imminent, and it stands to fundamentally alter how we interact with our smartphones. Siri AI looks very promising. The new Siri experience promises to be more conversational, with the dedicated app and a commitment to visual intelligence that could vastly elevate the entire user experience. However, the biggest differentiator here is the cross-platform play, backed by a firm promise of privacy. Apple possesses the largest user base poised to benefit from seamless cross-device connectivity and task handovers,” Tarun Pathak, research director, Counterpoint Research, told The Telegraph.
The new Siri app will make it easy to have a conversation with the iPhone and also hand off conversations to other Apple devices.
While Apple previously promised a smarter Siri that could understand a user’s screen two years ago — a vision delayed because initial results fell short of company standards — the new iteration introduces significant user interface changes.
These software updates come at a critical juncture. As one of the world’s most valuable publicly traded entities, Apple must ensure its ecosystem is firing on all cylinders before Ternus begins his tenure.
The reporter is in Cupertino on an invitation from Apple