The all-new Siri AI looks like it's finally coming to iPhone in 2026, after much drama, analyst hand-wringing, and two years later than expected.
WWDC is Apple's annual developer conference. It's held every June and gives developers and fans alike a glimpse of what to expect when Apple rolls out its major operating system updates in the fall.
This year is somewhat of a banner year, now, all thanks to one announcement. It finally seems like we're going to get a brand new, contextualized Siri AI
You know, the one that we were initially promised in 2024.
"Apple products are an essential part of people's lives, and this year we're bringing powerful new capabilities to empower our users in even more ways," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering.
"We're delivering the next generation of Apple Intelligence across our platforms; introducing Siri AI, a profoundly more intelligent, knowledgeable, and capable Siri; expanding child safety features with intuitive new tools for families; and making our software platforms faster, more reliable, and more delightful than ever before."
As well as the new name, Siri AI's upgrade looks a bit different from what we were initially given. Instead of the iPhone being bordered by a rainbow of colors, Siri now springs to life from the Dynamic Island with a Liquid Glass appearance.
In addition to familiar verbal commands, Siri AI is now able to work with data from multiple apps to provide answers to prompts. There's now also a dedicated Siri AI app that works across platforms.
Example of a conversation with the new Siri AI - image credit: Apple
It can also maintain a conversation with users, allowing for follow-up questions and prompts. At any point, Siri AI can be activated by "Hey, Siri," or pressing on the iPhone's side button.
On the Mac, it's part of Spotlight. Instead of the old "Type to Siri" that was reached by pressing the Command key twice, Spotlight recognizes a Siri request and passes it to the new Siri AI.
Siri AI then enters a chatbot-style interface, as previously rumored. Apple says that as well as data from a user's apps, it has World Knowledge, which means it can retrieve information from the web.
Now Siri AI is also part of the Camera app. Instead of launching Visual Intelligence, Siri can analyze photos directly from the camera.
Apple says the most powerful on-device AI models will not be on all devices - image credit: Apple
But the biggest takeaway is that we're finally getting the contextual Siri we've been hoping for, natural language prompts and all.
The long, winding road to the new Siri AI
Apple first introduced its idea for a new, more personal Siri in 2024. At that time, Apple believed that while the revamped personal assistant may not make it to the iOS 18 launch, it most certainly would be out before the year was over.
Siri AI on the Mac is now part of Spotlight - image credit: Apple
And then Apple believed that Siri would make its debut in March, as part of the iOS 18.4 update that introduced other Apple Intelligence features. But, it didn't.
Apple soon realized that it had bitten off more than it could chew. In March 2025, the company announced that Siri would be delayed for an indeterminate amount of time.
And then came the shakeups. That same month, John Giannandrea was ousted as the Siri chief, replaced by Mike Rockwell.
The following month, it was learned that Apple would be sending nearly 200 engineers to a multi-week AI vibecoding bootcamp to help shore up coding deficiencies.
Since then, Apple's been working on Siri behind the scenes. Months would go by without much news, either from Apple or purported insider knowledge.
Then, in October 2025, CEO Tim Cook announced that Siri would finally appear in its newest form "on time" in 2026. Of course, saying "in 2026" is still hedging, as it gave the developers a 365-day deadline.
All these delays haven't reflected well on Apple, either. Apple got hit with a class action lawsuit, which was eventually settled in December 2025 for $250 million.
