Siri AI is Apple playing catch-up, which could be an advantage

When Apple first announced ‘Apple Intelligence’, the company’s suite of generative AI-powered features, a smarter and more context-aware Siri assistant was among its promises. Multiple delays saw this vision slip, while Apple’s competitors launched and updated their own AI features in the two years since. Now, at WWDC 2026, Apple finally confirmed its generative AI software overhaul with Siri AI, a digital assistant made to be more integrated with the on-device experience.

Set to launch as a beta later in the year, Siri AI is a conversational digital assistant that has more knowledge to draw on and can discern on-screen context to provide relevant responses, according to Apple.

For years, Siri has had a fairly limited approach to answering user queries. Asking it to open recent emails from a specific sender likely won’t yield a helpful outcome. Siri AI is meant to change this, being able to dive into your device’s messages, emails, and photos to provide timely and relevant information. It will also work with third-party apps that integrate with Apple’s Spotlight on-device search functionality.

When Siri AI launches following the release of Apple’s upcoming software updates, including iOS 27, it will have its own dedicated app. Consistent with pre-announcement reporting, it’ll give Apple’s digital assistant a chatbot-like interface, providing a history of conversations with Siri that will sync between devices via iCloud.

Siri AI sounds incredibly familiar

While many of Apple’s recently announced AI-based features will be new to iPhone, iPad, and Mac users, those on the Android side of the fence have had access to similar technologies for some time now. Google’s Circle to Search feature, which launched with Samsung Galaxy S24 phones in early 2024, lets users look up anything on their screen, along with providing context-aware actions.

Cracking cross-app functionality has been the white whale of phone companies in the past few years. Getting a device to source information from multiple locations, while surfacing an accurate response, has proven to be trickier than one might think.

Take Google’s Magic Cue feature, for example, which purported to do just that. Launched with the Pixel 10 phones, it was Google’s attempt to automatically bring up relevant information in the right context. Think showing you flight details when on the phone with a hotel, or automatically saving dinner reservations in your calendar and sending a message to everyone attending.

In practice, Magic Cue proved to be an unreliable companion at launch. Similar features from competing devices have made big claims without fully delivering on them.

What Apple showed with Siri AI isn’t anything brand-new. Rather, it’s retreading familiar ground that others have already attempted with varying levels of success. If — and it’s a big ‘if’ — Apple can reliably and helpfully implement Siri AI throughout its devices, it might still have some point of difference.

Until then, a healthy dose of scepticism is what the latest big-ticket AI announcement calls for.

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