Apple’s long-delayed AI-powered Siri upgrade remains on track for a 2026 debut, CEO Tim Cook said Thursday. That offers some reassurance to users after multiple setbacks pushed the originally planned 2024 release back by more than a year.
So, what can we expect from a smarter Siri voice assistant when it finally arrives?
7 exciting features to expect from Siri’s 2026 AI upgrade
As the public face of Apple’s AI efforts, Siri needs to work seamlessly, produce reliable results and keep up with the competition. Unfortunately, the voice assistant we know and love (or maybe don’t anymore) currently pales in comparison to popular know-it-all chatbots like ChatGPT.
But Apple has a plan to fix that. Speaking during Apple’s earnings call on Thursday, Cook talked up Apple Intelligence — the banner for all company’s AI efforts — and addressed the Siri situation.
“We’re also excited for a more personalized Siri,” Cook said. “We’re making good progress on it and, as we’ve shared, we expect to release it next year.”
Previous rumors indicated the AI-enhanced Siri would launch in spring 2026, likely with an iOS 26.4 update. This will serve as a milestone for Apple’s AI ambitions after the company delayed the Siri upgrade, first announced at WWDC 2024, in March 2025.
At the time, Apple said, “It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features” after internal testing revealed quality problems.
After the long wait, here are seven game-changing capabilities we expect you’ll enjoy when you interact with the AI-boosted Siri:
1. Personal context awareness
The new Siri will gain awareness of your personal context. That means it should better understand information stored across your apps, including Calendar, Files, Mail, Messages, Notes and Photos.
Imagine asking Siri for “that recipe my friend sent me” without remembering whether it arrived via text, email or a note. Siri will find it regardless of where it’s stored.
Need your passport number while booking a flight? Siri will be able to locate this information across your devices, all while processing data on-device to maintain privacy.
2. On-screen awareness
Siri will understand and interact with the content currently displayed on your screen. If a friend shares their new address via text, you can simply say, “Add this address to their contact card,” and Siri will process the information directly from your screen.
This capability extends beyond contacts. Siri will be able to reference anything visible on your display, from restaurant recommendations in a message to details in an open webpage.
3. Deep app integration in Siri 2026 AI upgrade thanks to App Intents
Photo: Cult of Mac/Nadezhda Moryak
Perhaps the most transformative upgrade is a massive expansion of Apple’s App Intents framework that will let developers build apps in such a way that Siri can perform actions within them. Commands like, “Make this photo black and white and send it to my wife” should be able to perform the necessary actions in Photos and Messages without your intervention.
Apple is releasing 12 new domains in iOS 18 and beyond, including Mail, Photos, Books, Camera and Spreadsheets, with more than 100 different possible actions across them. Apple currently tests the new capabilities with popular apps including Uber, AllTrails, Threads, Temu, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp.
4. Cross-app task execution
After the AI upgrade, Siri will seamlessly take actions across multiple apps. After asking Siri to enhance a photo by saying, “Make this photo pop,” you can follow up with, “drop it in a specific note in the Notes app” without lifting a finger.
This multistep, cross-app functionality represents a leap forward from Siri’s current capabilities to handle single, isolated tasks.
5. Enhanced conversational abilities
The upgrade includes improved natural language processing that makes Siri’s voice more expressive, natural and clear, all processed on-device. Better error handling will allow Siri to understand and adapt when you stumble over words, while conversational context retention will make follow-up requests faster and more intuitive.
The voice assistant will maintain the thread of conversation more naturally, understanding references to previous queries without requiring you to repeat context.
6. Multiple AI model integration with Siri 2026 AI upgrade
Cook also confirmed Thursday that Apple plans to expand its Apple Intelligence suite by partnering with additional third-party AI providers beyond the current ChatGPT integration. Reports indicate Apple may leverage external AI engines from partners such as OpenAI and Anthropic for complex, multi-application tasks, with Google’s Gemini widely expected to join the platform.
This multimodel approach will allow Siri to tap into specialized capabilities from different AI providers while maintaining Apple’s privacy-first architecture.
7. Privacy-first design maintained
Apple’s approach to AI sets the company apart with its privacy-first design. Apple Intelligence is integrated into the core of your iPhone, iPad and Mac through on-device processing. So it’s aware of your personal information without collecting it.
For more complex requests, Apple Intelligence can draw on larger server-based models running on Apple silicon through Private Cloud Compute to handle tasks while protecting privacy.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
