Report: Apple Aims to Release AI-Powered Upgrade of Siri in Spring 2026
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Report: Apple Aims to Release AI Upgrade of Siri in Spring 2026
Apple reportedly aims to bring an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered upgrade of its Siri voice assistant to market in spring 2026. The new Siri features could be previewed in the fall before being released in the spring, Bloomberg reported Thursday (June 12), citing unnamed sources. Apple originally announced the features it planned to add to Siri in June 2024, according to the Bloomberg report. The company’s targeted release date was later shifted to spring 2025 and then, in March, postponed to sometime in the coming year, the report said. Apple CEO Tim Cook said May 1, during the company’s quarterly earnings call, that Apple needs “more time” to upgrade Siri.
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The new Siri features could be previewed in the fall before being released in the spring, Bloomberg reported Thursday (June 12), citing unnamed sources.
When asked by Bloomberg about the release date, Apple said it hasn’t announced an exact date but noted that it said earlier that the Siri upgrades are planned for the “coming year.”
Apple originally announced the features it planned to add to Siri in June 2024, according to the Bloomberg report. These capabilities were marketed last year and were set to be launched in fall 2024.
The company’s targeted release date was later shifted to spring 2025 and then, in March, postponed to sometime in the coming year, the report said.
Over that time, technical challenges led to Siri being rebuilt entirely and management responsibilities being shifted around within Apple, per the report.
One of the new heads of engineering for Siri, software engineering chief Craig Federighi, said this week at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, per the report: “This work needed more time to reach our high quality bar, and we look forward to sharing more about it in the coming year.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook said May 1, during the company’s quarterly earnings call, that Apple needs “more time” to upgrade Siri’s AI capabilities, PYMNTS reported at the time.
“We are making progress, and we look forward to getting these features into customers’ hands,” Cook said.
When pressed by an analyst to specify reasons for the delay, Cook said, “There’s not a lot of other reasons. … It’s just taking a bit longer than we thought.”
It was reported Sunday (June 8) that employees who had recently departed the company said Apple has been hit by challenges in updating Siri with the use of cutting-edge large language models (LLMs) that can provide more sophisticated responses to spoken prompts.
Apple’s restrained approach to innovation in generative AI stands in contrast to rivals like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, which are embracing LLMs and enterprise-scale AI solutions in aggressive and sometimes experimental ways, PYMNTS reported Monday (June 9).
New Report Confirms Internal Apple Deadline for Revamped Siri
Apple has finally set a date for the long-awaited overhaul of its voice assistant. Engineering teams are now aiming to ship the upgraded Siri in iOS 26.4, a mid-cycle update that typically arrives in March. Apple introduced the AI-powered Siri features at WWDC 2024 and initially hinted they would land in 2025. That timeline collapsed after the first internal builds failed to meet Apple’s reliability bar. Apple frames the delay as a quality decision, but it also leaves the company playing catch-up while Google, Microsoft, and Amazon race ahead with generative AI assistants. The 2026 target means at least one more iPhone generation will launch with only incremental Siri changes, not the full reinvention Apple previewed on stage.
Apple introduced the AI-powered Siri features at WWDC 2024 and initially hinted they would land in 2025. That timeline collapsed after the first internal builds failed to meet Apple’s reliability bar.
“The experience didn’t converge in the way, quality-wise, that we needed it to,” software chief Craig Federighi admitted in a post-keynote interview, confirming that the latest Siri features will indeed be pushed to 2026. Marketing head Greg Joswiak added that shipping something half-baked “would have been more disappointing to customers than taking extra time.”
However, shortly after Federighi’s confirmation, a more specific launch date has emerged. The new launch date is an internal target as reported by Bloomberg after several others have been missed. The features were originally planned for fall 2024, eventually being pushed to early 2025, then May, and now March 2026.
One reason could be the ambitions Apple has behind the new version of Siri. The new version promises deeper on-device intelligence, letting Siri do some impressive tasks it couldn’t before:
On-screen awareness : Siri will be able to see the current app, webpage, or document and use that context in a follow-up question.
: Siri will be able to see the current app, webpage, or document and use that context in a follow-up question. Personal context : It can pull details from your calendar, messages, and email to answer queries or draft actions.
: It can pull details from your calendar, messages, and email to answer queries or draft actions. Action chains : Instead of one-shot commands (“Set a reminder”), you’ll be able to ask for multi-step tasks such as “Email this PDF to my team and add it to Monday’s agenda.”
: Instead of one-shot commands (“Set a reminder”), you’ll be able to ask for multi-step tasks such as “Email this PDF to my team and add it to Monday’s agenda.” Third-party hooks: Apple plans to give developers an “actions” API so their apps can plug into Siri’s new brain.
The Bigger Picture
Apple frames the delay as a quality decision, but it also leaves the company playing catch-up while Google, Microsoft, and Amazon race ahead with generative AI assistants. The 2026 target means at least one more iPhone generation will launch with only incremental Siri changes, not the full reinvention Apple previewed on stage.
Developers should see an early Siri SDK at WWDC 2026 so they can wire these new “actions” into their apps. Public beta testers are likely to get hands-on time later that year, just before the iOS 26.4 rollout in March 2026. Until then, iPhone owners will have to settle for smaller Apple Intelligence perks arriving in iOS 26 this fall while Apple quietly rebuilds Siri into the assistant it always promised to be.