After years of broken promises, false advertising, embarrassing delays, and a Siri that has lagged far behind competitors, Apple is finally preparing to deliver a meaningful upgrade to its voice assistant. According to The Information, the long-awaited overhauled Siri will launch in September 2026 alongside iOS 27, relying on a hybrid approach that taps Google Cloud’s Gemini models and Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs for the heavy lifting.
This is the same Siri overhaul that was teased at WWDC 2024, delayed multiple times throughout 2025, and pushed into 2026 amid internal missteps, executive shakeups, and what critics have called a lack of urgency in Apple’s AI strategy.
Tim Cook Bears Responsibility
Tim Cook, Apple’s outgoing CEO, ultimately owns these repeated delays. In fact, this whole debacle may have been what finally precipitated Apple’s CEO transition. Apple publicly hyped advanced, personalized Siri capabilities as part of Apple Intelligence at WWWC 2024, only to admit they needed “more time to meet our high-quality bar.” That phrase became a recurring corporate euphemism while rivals like Google and OpenAI surged ahead. Cook addressed the setbacks in earnings calls and internal meetings, but the pattern points to leadership-level complacency if not utter blindness.
Under Cook’s tenure, Apple has excelled at operational execution and services growth, but it has repeatedly found itself playing catch-up in transformative technologies. The decision to lean on Google and Nvidia for this Siri reboot — after heavily marketing on-device privacy and Apple Silicon prowess — underscores how far behind the company was in scaling generative AI. Internal reshuffles (including changes to AI leadership) and reports of “ugly, embarrassing” delays further highlight execution shortfalls on his watch.
What the New Siri is Expected to Deliver
• Hybrid AI Architecture: Simple tasks stay on-device for speed and privacy. Complex queries route to Google’s Gemini via Nvidia-powered cloud infrastructure with confidential computing encryption.
• September Launch: Expected with iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, tvOS 27, etc. More previews likely at WWDC 2026 (starting June 8th).
• Potential Impact: If it finally works as promised — handling context, interruptions, multi-step tasks, and personalization — LLM Siri could quiet critics and help drive iPhone, iPad, and Mac upgrades and sales.
This hybrid pivot represents a pragmatic (if humbling) admission that Apple’s late, go-it-alone approach wasn’t scaling fast enough. For loyal users tired of Siri’s limitations, it’s welcome news. But the multi-year wait leaves a sour taste — one that lands squarely at the top of the org chart.
MacDailyNews Take: With the right leader, Apple has the resources, talent, and ecosystem to lead. The question now is whether WWDC26 begins to deliver a Siri that actually works or if it’s just the latest patch on a decade-plus Siri underperformance. On that point, we’ve been hearing very hopeful murmurs for months now, so things could be looking up very soon!
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Has there been any indication of what devices this will work on? As someone with OG HomePods, an M1 iPad, an 8 gig m2 MacBook air, and an iPhone 14, are ANY of these devices likely to run the new siri?:?
“In theory,” it should be able to run anywhere ( TV, Watch, etc.). As they described it a couple years ago, Apple Intelligence is supposed to do Whatever It Can on the local device, and do Everything Else on a secure iCloud server. On the other hand, at this point, there’s no reason to believe that their half-baked plan years ago is the same one they have now. And maybe they’ll announce something equally impressive, and equally unfounded in reality.
We’ll know more on Monday.