Apple ‘Eyes Spring 2026’ For Delayed Siri AI Upgrade

Apple is internally aiming to release its long-delayed Siri upgrade in spring 2026, Bloomberg reported, as the company tries to get its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts on track.

The Siri team is aiming for the update to be part of a planned iOS 26.4 software release, the report said.

Such “.4” updates are generally released in March, but no precise date has reportedly been set beyond a spring time frame.

Delays

If the next several weeks of development appears promising, the major Siri revamp could be previewed when Apple releases new iPhones in the autumn, the report said, citing unnamed people.

Apple announced the Siri AI features at last year’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) and promoted them as a key draw for iPhones released last autumn, saying at the time the features would be added soon.

But the release was pushed back multiple times and was finally postponed indefinitely amidst complex technical challenges.

The delays have been a significant setback for Apple, which sold AI to investors as a key reason for people to buy new iPhones, since the AI features only work on newer models.

The firm reportedly reorganised its AI development teams earlier this year in a move that showed how seriously it viewed the situation, removing consumer-facing responsibilities including Siri from senior vice-president of AI John Giannandrea and handing Siri over to Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell and software engineering chief Craig Federighi.

Apple’s plans are in part being held back due to its prior successes with Siri, which was first introduced in 2011 and is widely used on iPhones for simple voice-activated tasks such as making calls or setting reminders.

For more complex tasks, Apple has been developing an “LLM Siri” powered by a large language model like those used for generative AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini.

LLM Siri

Initially it also retained the original, more basic software and tried to link the two together, but this resulted in errors that caused the technology to work incorrectly about one-third of the time, and necessitating Siri to be rebuilt from scratch, an earlier report said.

Apple continues to debate internally how much AI technology it should develop itself and how much it should rely on partners such as OpenAI, according to Bloomberg’s report.

It said the company has also considered buying AI start-ups.

Other major tech firms have also shifted between internal AI development and external investments or acquisitions, the most recent being Meta Platforms, which last week invested $14 billion (£10.3bn) in start-up Scale AI and hired Scale chief executive Alexandr Wang to join a Meta AI development team.