Apple’s revamped Siri AI works at last, but critics say it’s already behind

Apple ↘ 0.54% has rolled out its long-awaited overhaul of Siri in the iOS 27 consumer beta, delivering an AI assistant that finally works as promised — only to find that the broader AI landscape has already sprinted past the finish line.

A Functional Assistant at Last

The updated Siri AI, which became available to public beta testers on July 14, represents the most substantial upgrade to Apple's digital assistant in its history. Built on Apple Foundation Models trained using Google's Alphabet Inc. ↗ 0.77% Gemini AI technology, the new Siri can hold natural, multi-turn conversations, understand personal context across emails, photos, and calendar events, and perform tasks across apps with newfound reliability.techcrunch+3

Users can now ask Siri to locate a receipt saved somewhere on their iPhone without specifying where it was stored, extract a driver's license number from a photo, or suggest recipes based on whatever ingredients happen to be in the fridge. The assistant also works within the camera viewfinder for real-world object identification and can help split a restaurant bill. A dedicated Siri app allows users to reference past conversations, and voice settings let them adjust expressivity and pacing.autogpt+2

"We believe privacy in AI is non-negotiable," Apple SVP Craig Federighi said at WWDC in June. The models run on Apple's own silicon and its Private Cloud Compute infrastructure, with user data processed through Apple-operated servers that de-identify requests before anything reaches Google.autogpt

The Timing Problem

Despite the technical improvements, the launch has landed with a muted reception. TechCrunch wrote that "being a functional chatbot or AI helper isn't the breakthrough that it once would have been," noting that competing AI tools are already coding software, controlling computers, and completing multi-step workflows autonomously. Bloomberg described Apple as "finally entering the chatbot race".bloomberg+1

The development traces back to Apple's partnership with Google, announced in January 2026, in which Apple reportedly agreed to pay $1 billion per year to build its next-generation foundation models on Gemini's technology. Apple CEO Tim Cook told investors in April that the collaboration "is going well". Cook is stepping down as CEO on September 1, with hardware chief John Ternus taking over.builtin+1

What Comes Next

Siri AI requires an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, leaving hundreds of millions of older devices without access to the AI features. The EU and China will also miss the initial launch due to regulatory requirements. The full public release is expected with iOS 27 in September 2026.forbes+2

Still, gaps remain. Siri AI cannot run autonomous agents, write code, or control a computer the way ChatGPT or Claude can. Apple has indicated that iOS 27 will let users swap in any AI model from the App Store as Siri's underlying engine, a move that could reshape the assistant's capabilities. As TechCrunch put it, the upgrade feels less like a revolution and "more like Apple fixed a longstanding bug".techcrunch+2