After years of promises and delays, Apple’s smarter Siri is finally set to arrive next month, bringing a major upgrade to the iPhone’s virtual assistant as Apple looks to close the gap with ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.
Apple introduced the new Siri AI at its developer conference in June, describing it as a more capable assistant built around three key features: personal context, broader knowledge and on-screen awareness.
Siri gets personal
The biggest advantage Apple has over rival AI chatbots is access to the information already stored on your devices.
With permission, Siri AI can search across messages, emails, photos, notes and calendars to find information and connect the dots.
That could mean finding a restaurant recommendation buried in an old message, retrieving a hotel confirmation from an email or locating photos from a particular trip — without manually searching through different apps.
Siri can also maintain conversations, answer follow-up questions and access current information from the web.
Apple is also pushing Siri beyond simply providing answers.
Through its App Intents framework, developers can allow Siri to discover information inside their apps and perform specific actions. This could eventually allow users to complete tasks with a simple voice command instead of opening an app and navigating multiple menus.
However, the experience will depend heavily on developers adopting the technology. Until more banking, travel, productivity and other apps integrate with App Intents, Siri’s capabilities may vary from app to app.
Apple is working with Google
Apple is also taking an unusual approach to the AI race.
While it continues developing its own Apple Foundation Models, the company has acknowledged working with Google and its Gemini models on the next generation of its AI technology.
Apple is combining those capabilities with its own hardware, software, personal-data indexing and privacy systems.
The company says sensitive information processed through its Private Cloud Compute system is not stored or accessible to Apple.
The upgraded Siri will not be available across every device that supports iOS 27.
Apple says Siri AI will be supported on iPhone 16 models and later, as well as the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max.
The most advanced on-device model requires 12GB of unified memory, currently limiting it to newer high-end iPhones.
There is good news for South African users: South Africa is among the initial English-speaking markets expected to receive Siri AI.
The launch is expected to coincide with Apple’s upcoming iPhone event in September, where the company is expected to unveil its next-generation iPhones and potentially its first foldable model.
The real test for Apple will not be whether Siri can have a better conversation than ChatGPT.
It will be whether an AI assistant that already knows what is on your phone can become genuinely more useful than a chatbot that doesn’t.
After years of falling behind, Apple finally has a chance to make Siri relevant again.
Main Image: TechCrunch
