Apple has announced a delay in the rollout of AI-driven enhancements to its Siri voice assistant, originally slated for release in 2025. The company now anticipates these features will become available in the “coming year,” potentially as late as 2026.
These enhancements aim to make Siri more personalized by improving its contextual understanding and enabling it to perform tasks across various apps. For instance, users would be able to ask Siri to locate a podcast recommended by a friend or retrieve flight information shared by a relative, leveraging data stored on their devices.
The delay highlights Apple’s ongoing challenges in advancing Siri’s capabilities to match those of competitors like Google’s Gemini and Amazon’s Alexa, both of which have rapidly incorporated AI features into their voice assistants.
Initially introduced at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2024, these Siri updates were expected to launch in the spring of 2025. However, according to an Apple spokesperson, the development has taken longer than anticipated, pushing the release to 2026.
This delay is another setback for Apple, which has recently faced challenges with AI news summaries and voice-to-text features. Analysts have noted that there has been no significant increase in iPhone 16 sales attributed to AI features, referring to Apple’s efforts as a “false start” in the AI race.
In the meantime, Apple continues to expand the availability of “Apple Intelligence,” a suite of AI-driven features, with plans to support additional languages beyond the initial U.S. English release.