Apple announced iOS 27 at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday and once again decided to put AI at the forefront. The consumer tech giant announced the software update will include AI-integrated Siri powered by Apple Intelligence. This is not the first time Apple has promised more AI features integrated into Siri but has so far failed to deliver.
Investors too seem to still be doubtful regarding Apple’s ability to carry out AI integrating with Siri as the company’s stock fell by nearly 2 percent, trading at $301, at the time of writing.
Apple promises a whole new Siri experience
It is still unclear when the update will roll out, but it will be available for phones as old as the iPhone 11 and will offer more ways to refine Liquid Glass on your device.
Historically such updates are released in September around Apple’s hardware event.
While announcing Siri AI at the keynote address, Apple promised a “more fluid and smarter” experience.
Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi said, “Siri is now a profoundly more capable assistant that helps you find what you need and gets more done. It’s also more conversational, so you can go back and forth like never before and get detailed, engaging answers.”
The new Siri AI is also expected to understand personal context through Apple Intelligence, as well as show better image understanding and execute voice commands through improved app actions.
Apple’s failed Siri promises
Just two years ago at the WWDC in June 2024, Apple Intelligence was unveiled promising groundbreaking AI integration with Apple devices which would bring a whole world of generative AI features to users. At the center of it was Siri, reimagined, improved and driven by next-gen intelligence.
Apple promised this ‘improved’ Siri to be more conversational with better app actions integration, deeper personalization and an overall smoother experience.
All of which, Apple has once again promised. Two years later. But the story actually goes back further.
In 2011, when Siri was launched with the iPhone 4S, Apple called it the first AI voice assistant on a smartphone. There was a short, brief period when Siri was genuinely ahead of the curve by being a natural language interface which could answer questions and carry out tasks like setting alarms and reminders, and sending messages. The problem for Apple, as it turned out, was that it failed to take Siri further. As a result, Siri has largely been discarded to the second rung of AI assistants, struggling to catch up to competitors like Google Assistant.
When OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022 and the generative AI era began in earnest, Siri’s limitations became impossible to ignore.
From excuses to admission and a huge payout
Last year, Apple suddenly went quiet on Siri. Despite the top hires and bang in the middle of the AI-boom era one of the biggest technology companies was unable to come out and deliver on something which was now being seen as a fundamental offering in consumer electronics. Initially the tech behemoth remained non-committal. It said it was focusing on reliability and was still working on integrating AI with its devices in a more meaningful way. However by March 2025, Apple admitted that it would not be able to deliver on the enhancements it had promised.
A spokesperson said it would “take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features.”
Craig Federighi, acknowledged in a Wall Street Journal interview that the new Siri experience “did not converge in the way, quality-wise, that we needed it to.”
By late 2025, John Giannandrea, the high-profile tech hire from Google, exited the company. Shortly after, Apple restructured its AI leadership.
The cost of these failed promises wasn’t just human. Apple also ended up agreeing to a $250 million settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit alleging it had misled consumers by promoting Apple Intelligence features that were not available at launch. Apple did not admit to any wrongdoing but it did settle the case.
