Apple is reportedly in crisis mode over Siri as efforts to deliver a fully overhauled, conversational assistant continue to slip. The most ambitious upgrade, internally dubbed “LLM Siri,” is now not expected to reach consumers until iOS 20 at best, pushing a truly revamped Siri timeframe into 2027. The delay underscores how far behind schedule Apple is on meaningful voice assistant improvements, particularly as expectations rise for a version that can compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence systems.
Some incremental improvements are still on the way. The upcoming iOS 18.5 will reportedly enable Siri to use personal data more effectively to provide customized responses and “take action” across apps. However, Siri’s current architecture remains a core problem, as its functionality depends on a patchwork that blends a legacy system for basic commands with a more advanced system powering Apple Intelligence queries. Apple originally planned to merge these into a single “LLM Siri” system for the iOS 18 launch, but that target was missed. Apple was planning to bring LLM Siri to the iOS 19 release at WWDC this coming June, but that plan is reportedly delayed now too, which means the iOS 19 update might not include significant Apple Intelligence updates and may push LLM Siri to the next cycle with iOS 20.
The delays contribute to what has been described as an “AI crisis” and a “make-or-break” moment for Apple, as it risks losing competitive ground in Artificial Intelligence. Internal data reportedly shows “extremely low” usage of Apple Intelligence so far, whose current feature set includes writing tools, voicemail and audio transcriptions, custom Genmoji, and Image Playground for Artificial Intelligence-generated cartoon images, along with notification, message, and email summaries. Some of those summaries have been criticized as annoying or dangerously inaccurate, including a high-profile error about suspected Healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione, which prompted Apple to suspend Artificial Intelligence news summaries. Compounding the pressure, Amazon has just introduced an updated Alexa+ with conversational capabilities, third-party app integration, and agentic Artificial Intelligence features similar to what Apple appears to be targeting for Siri, putting additional scrutiny on Apple’s ability to close the gap.
