Apple’s AI-powered Siri assistant hit by big delay

Apple has confirmed that it’s delaying the release of a new AI-infused Siri digital assistant, saying the company now expects to roll out the software sometime “in the coming year”.

The effort will give Siri “more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps”, the iPhone maker said in a statement. “It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features.”

The new capabilities were first touted last June at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference. At the time, the company was aiming for a May debut, a postponement from earlier plans, people familiar with the situation said.

The new capabilities include Personal Context, a feature that lets Siri tap into user data to help with queries, and App Intents, a mechanism for more precisely controlling applications and features across Apple’s operating systems.

When Apple announced the features at WWDC, it didn’t provide an arrival date for the Siri upgrade. Within the company, though, the plan was to include the new technology in iOS 18.4, which comes out in April. The company’s artificial intelligence team has been dealing with broader challenges, including leadership concerns and engineering problems.

More advanced version

Despite the new Siri features never reaching consumers, the company has been advertising them in television advertisements for several months. Still, Siri did get some refinements as part of the roll-out of iOS 18, including an integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot and a text-based option called Type to Siri.

Apple has been working on a further-out, more advanced version of Siri as well. But that software, which would provide a more conversational experience, has been been running into its own delays. The overhaul was once eyed for 2026 but now may not arrive until 2027.

Read: Apple’s latest Macs: faster chips, lower prices

The slow pace threatens to put Apple further behind Amazon.com in the voice assistant market. That company will begin rolling out its highly anticipated Alexa+ this month.  — (c) 2025 Bloomberg LP

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