Apple on Monday unveiled a long-delayed overhaul of its Siri assistant, betting the upgraded version can help it close the gap with Big Tech rivals and new startups in the crucial artificial intelligence race.
The revamp, unveiled at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in Cupertino, California, introduces "Siri AI," a more conversational assistant with a standalone app and the ability to analyze what is on a user’s screen and pull in information from the web. The update comes two years after Apple first promised major upgrades that were repeatedly delayed.
Apple said users would be able to revisit past Siri conversations, while the assistant can locate details such as an address mentioned in a message, even if it was never formally saved.
The changes mark Apple’s most significant attempt yet to revive Siri, which has struggled to keep pace with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini, which have moved faster to embed "agentic" AI – or software that can carry out complex tasks – into everyday computing.
"Some appear to be racing forward, seemingly pursuing AI for the sake of AI, without clear regard for the people, all of us, that it's ultimately meant to serve," Apple software chief Craig Federighi said in his keynote speech, alluding to rival AI developers.
