Apple has indefinitely delayed its promised AI upgrades to Siri after top executives, including software chief Craig Federighi, determined the features “didn’t work properly — or as advertised,” sources familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg.
The company announced that the enhancements to its digital assistant, which were unveiled with much fanfare at last June’s Worldwide Developers Conference, won’t arrive until sometime in “the coming year.” These features, which would allow Siri to access users’ personal information and provide more precise app control, were originally slated for the iOS 18.4 update this April.
Despite engineers racing to fix “a rash of bugs in the project,” their work has been unsuccessful, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports. Internal sources indicate the features may not be released until next year at the earliest, with some in Apple’s AI division believing the company might need to “rebuild the functions from scratch.”
The delay represents a significant blow to Apple’s AI ambitions. The company has been advertising these now-postponed features in television commercials for nearly six months, prominently marketing the iPhone 16 as “built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence.”
This setback adds to growing concerns about Apple’s AI capabilities. According to Gurman, Apple employees are questioning whether CEO Tim Cook or the board needs to intervene to change the AI division’s leadership to prevent the company from falling further behind competitors.
The timeline for Apple’s AI roadmap has been significantly disrupted, with plans for a more conversational, ChatGPT-like Siri potentially pushed back to 2027 with iOS 20. Meanwhile, rivals like Amazon are moving ahead, with the launch of Alexa+ expected this month.
In anticipation of customer backlash, Apple has instructed its support representatives to tell inquiring customers that these Siri features will arrive “in the coming year.”
