Apple unveils Siri AI in major assistant overhaul

Apple announced a sweeping overhaul of Siri on Monday, renaming its longtime digital assistant Siri AI and adding artificial intelligence features designed to help users search their devices, pull information from the web and complete everyday tasks with fewer steps.

The company introduced the changes at its Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California, calling the update one of the most significant changes to Siri since Apple bought the voice-enabled assistant in 2010 and added it to its devices the next year. Siri AI will be available later this year on iPhones, iPads and Macs, initially in English, executives said. It will not be available at first in the European Union or China while Apple works through regulatory requirements.

“Today we’re taking a big step forward,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president for software design, said during the presentation. He said Apple’s approach would focus on utility and privacy. “We believe that truly helpful AI must be centered around you and your needs.”

Apple executives showed videotaped demonstrations of Siri AI helping users look up a concert date, shop for a backpack, plan a soccer watch party, recommend menus, find addresses in texts or emails and move photos into albums. Mike Rockwell, Apple’s vice president in charge of Siri engineering, said the assistant would draw on information from across a user’s device, cloud computing networks and the open web.

“Siri is now a profoundly more capable assistant that helps you find what you need and gets more done,” Rockwell said.

Apple said Siri AI will be available through a standalone app, the home screen search function and other apps, including Photos. The company also said it will work through the keyboard across the system. “Because it’s built right into the keyboard, you can use it across the system, whether you’re texting the group chat while you’re on the subway or thinking out loud while using your journaling app,” Rockwell said.

The rollout places Apple in more direct competition with AI assistants such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google Gemini. On Monday, NBC News reported that three of the top six apps in Apple’s app marketplace were chatbot apps: ChatGPT at No. 1, Claude at No. 5 and Google Gemini at No. 6. Meta AI ranked No. 19.

Apple is also working with Google. The companies announced in January a multi-year collaboration under which Google’s Gemini model would help power Apple’s AI systems. Apple previously released an integration with ChatGPT in 2024, allowing iPhone users to get responses from the chatbot within a Siri conversation. Bloomberg reported last month that the relationship between OpenAI and Apple had become strained, with OpenAI believing the integration failed to meet expectations and considering legal action.

Apple’s share price fell close to 2% after Monday’s announcements, NPR reported. Analysts said the changes could be meaningful but still need to prove themselves with consumers. Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies, said Siri had a low bar for improvement. “It looks like it’s a pretty big upgrade,” he said, adding, “I think now we’ll just have to see how it actually works.”

Daniel Newman, CEO of the Futurum Group, called it a “prove-it moment” for Apple. “My first reaction — and I think the reason the stock sort of fell — was it’s ticking a box, but still uninspiring,” he said.

Beyond AI, Apple announced new parental controls that will let parents limit which websites children can browse, which apps they can download, who can communicate with them and how much time they can spend on devices. The announcements come as AI and social media companies face lawsuits alleging harms to minors, including mental health problems and exposure to violent or sexually graphic chatbot conversations.

Outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook opened and closed the main session but did not unveil the new products. NPR reported that Cook said in April he would hand over leadership in September to John Ternus, who oversees Apple hardware development. Closing Monday’s keynote, Cook said “the best is still ahead” for Apple.