Apple announced on Friday that several artificial intelligence (AI) enhancements for its voice assistant, Siri, originally planned for a 2025 release, have been delayed until 2026.
The tech giant has been working on a “more personalized Siri,” designed to improve the assistant’s awareness of users’ personal contexts and enable it to perform tasks across various apps. In a statement, Apple explained, “It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features, and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.”
The company did not specify the reasons for the delay.
Last year, Apple introduced a suite of AI-driven features under the banner “Apple Intelligence,” which included tools for rewriting emails and summarizing cluttered inboxes. Among the most significant upgrades were improvements to Siri, allowing it to navigate between apps and complete tasks for users by accessing information stored on Apple devices.
For example, Apple demonstrated how Siri could retrieve a podcast recommended by a friend or provide flight tracking details for a relative, all based on data stored locally on the device.
To support these AI advancements, Apple has been developing a large-scale cloud computing infrastructure powered by its own chips, ensuring it maintains its commitment to user privacy while delivering advanced AI capabilities. The company revealed that Siri currently handles 1.5 billion user requests daily.
Apple’s competitors have also been aggressively integrating AI features into their voice assistants. Google, for instance, incorporated its Gemini AI model into its assistant last year. Similarly, Amazon recently launched an AI-driven overhaul of its Alexa assistant, offering new capabilities free to Prime subscribers but charging $19.99 per month for non-subscribers.
The delay in Siri’s AI enhancements highlights the challenges of developing sophisticated, privacy-focused AI tools while keeping pace with competitors in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
