Apple has announced that some of its planned artificial intelligence enhancements for Siri, its well-known voice assistant, will not be available until 2026, pushing back the initial rollout. This adjustment means certain features designed to make Siri more personalized and capable of handling tasks across various apps will require additional development time.
The company released a statement explaining that their work on a more context-aware Siri, capable of understanding and acting on user-specific information within and between applications, is proving more complex than initially anticipated. Apple had previously indicated these features would be introduced in 2025. Now, users will have to wait longer to experience these advanced capabilities.
These planned improvements are part of Apple’s broader “Apple Intelligence” initiative, which includes a range of AI-driven features. Among the most anticipated are those that would allow Siri to interact more seamlessly with data stored on Apple devices. For instance, imagine asking Siri to find a podcast recommendation from a friend or to retrieve flight details sent by a family member. These actions would rely on Siri’s ability to access and process information directly from the device.
To support these AI features while maintaining user privacy, Apple has been developing a new cloud computing infrastructure powered by its own chips. This infrastructure is designed to process data in a way that respects user privacy, a core principle for the company. The complexities of building and refining this system, while also enhancing Siri’s capabilities, appear to be contributing to the delay.
While this news is disappointing, I believe Apple users would prefer the launch of a finished product, rather than an unfinished one with the potential to compromise user privacy. It will be interesting to see how Apple manages to deliver these features in the future, and how they balance privacy and functionality.
