(Image credit: Future)
About a year ago, I spoke with Apple's Craig Federighi after the WWDC 2025 keynote to discuss the Siri delay, and at the time, the senior vice president of software engineering seemed adamant that Apple was not interested in building a chatbot."Apple didn't want to send users off into some chat experience in order to get things done," Federighi told me. "We were very clear this wasn't about us building a chatbot. We want to bring intelligence deeply integrated into the experience of all of our platforms."Fast-forward one year to WWDC 2026, and Apple has unveiled the new Siri AI, which — you guessed it — has a dedicated app that some might perceive as a chatbot. But Federighi and other Apple executives here insisted during a press Q&A that Apple's focus has not changed."We see Siri not as a separate chatbot, an unintegrated place you go and chitchat, but rather as an integral but conversational tool that you use in the moment," said Federighi. "It's deeply integrated into your experience, understanding what's on screen...And so while the experiences are conversational, they are really an extension of your system experience, deeply integrated into your flow."The new Siri AI in action
