Heavily marketed artificial intelligence upgrades for Apple’s virtual assistant Siri have been indefinitely delayed, with a company executive reportedly describing the issue as “ugly” and embarrassing.

Since launching in 2011, Siri has lost ground to rival chatbots from the likes of Google, Amazon, and Samsung, which have more quickly implemented generative AI (genAI) technologies to improve their assistants' contextual understanding.

Apple’s AI updates for Siri, announced in June 2024 as part of what the company calls its Apple Intelligence suite of software, have been only partly released.

On some Apple devices, Siri is now able to send queries it cannot handle to OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT Large Language Model (LLM).

However, the ability to tap into a user’s personal information and apps to find answers and take action has been delayed until sometime in “the coming year”, the tech giant told US media last week, pushing back features which were initially expected in the first half of 2025.

Robby Walker, a senior director who oversees Apple’s Siri division, reportedly told a recent meeting of the division that the company’s decision to promote Siri’s major AI upgrades before they were ready was a mistake, and made the delays especially “ugly”, Bloomberg reported.

“This was not one of these situations where we get to show people our plan after it’s done — we showed people before,” he reportedly said.

Walker allegedly cited performance issues and the need to juggle other Apple projects as causes of the delays.

He reportedly praised Apple’s Siri division for its work, but acknowledged workers “may be feeling angry, disappointed, burned out and embarrassed after the features were postponed”, according to Bloomberg.

It is unclear when Siri’s next major enhancements will launch — and although Apple allegedly hoped to add them with its next major software updates in September, it “doesn’t mean that we’re shipping then”, Walker reportedly added.

Apple has not commented on the meeting, but told US media it anticipated rolling out “a more personalised Siri” to users “in the coming year”.

The company reportedly plans to further upgrade Siri’s conversational abilities in 2027, to help it compete with rival AI chatbots which have grown in popularity, Bloomberg reported.


Apple says its plans to roll out a more contextually-aware Siri has been indefinitely delayed. Images: Apple / Supplied

Apple pulls Siri ad, adds disclaimer

News from the meeting of Apple’s Siri division comes just weeks after the tech giant pulled one of three prominent advertisements it released for Siri’s forthcoming AI features, which featured British actor Bella Ramsey.

The shelved advertisement was released in September 2024 and depicted Ramsey asking Siri to remind her of the name of a person she had met at a specific cafe, but had since forgotten.

In the ad, Siri appeared to immediately tell Ramsey the person’s name using data from her personal calendar, but the clip has since been set to private on Apple’s YouTube channel.

The two other advertisements featuring Ramsey showing already released Siri AI features have remained live since September.

Apple Intelligence features were not available in Australian or New Zealand until 12 December 2024.

Apple has also added a disclaimer about Siri’s forthcoming upgrades on some product pages of its website in recent weeks.

The disclaimer reads, “Siri’s personal context understanding, onscreen awareness, and in-app actions are in development and will be available with a future software update.”

Some other Apple Intelligence features have previously run into quality issues, with Apple temporarily pausing its software’s ability to summarise notifications from news and entertainment apps, after concerns were raised over inaccuracies.

Apple Intelligence issues ‘might impact sales’

Delays or issues with Apple Intelligence could impact iPhone sales this year, according to an Australian analyst.

Foad Fadaghi, managing director and principal analyst at Telsyte, said while it was initially thought Apple Intelligence could spark a major iPhone upgrade cycle, things have moved more slowly than the tech giant may have wanted.

“It’s fair to say that the [iPhone] upgrade cycle has started a bit slower than expected and could now peak during iPhone 17 or even iPhone 18,” he told Information Age.

“The delays on Apple Intelligence might impact sales of iPhone 16 for the rest of this year.”

Apple last month released its new budget-focused model called iPhone 16e — which supports Apple Intelligence features — as a replacement for the discontinued iPhone SE.

Any major upgrade cycle still “hinges on Apple’s ability to showcase private, on-device context-aware AI that can seamlessly integrate into apps and routines”, Telsyte wrote in an October report.

“It’s clear to see that Apple has not invested at the same levels into genAI as Google, Microsoft, or Meta,” Fadaghi added.

“This presents a risk, as conversational AI and agentic AI could significantly change how users interact with devices and apps.

“To use an analogy, it was too late for BlackBerry once Apple finally put out their touchscreen iPhone — Apple needs to make sure it doesn’t similarly fall behind with AI.”