Apple will convert its Siri assistant into a full-fledged chatbot next year. The company is working on a personal AI device to compete with the one OpenAI is building with Jony Ive. And Apple is giving control of its AI strategy to new hands within the company. That’s evident from a flurry of new reports, all of which further the broader narrative that Apple is doing what it can to get itself back into the AI race.
And it does it in a way that allows, in classic Apple fashion, to lead from behind. That is, it can sit back and benefit from the hard lessons learned by others bringing a new technology to market, and then be fashionably late with a more polished product.
Apple and Google announced on January 12, the (notoriously slow) Siri assistant will be powered, at least in part, by Gemini models developed by Google’s DeepMind division. Apple has raised concerns in the past about the privacy implications of sending user data to AI models outside its infrastructure. Apple has said it plans to run its AI models in a secure Apple cloud, or better yet, on chips inside Apple devices.
Bringing in twins
But that can change. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is now in talks with Google to implement the Gemini models that power Siri and Apple Intelligence features within the Google Cloud. Last reports said Apple could pay Google as much as $1 billion a year for access to the Gemini models.
The “new” Siri is expected to arrive in March or April with iOS 26.4, the report said. The assistant will reportedly gain a better contextual understanding of the user by accessing certain types of personal data stored on the user’s device. It can also have an awareness of what the user is viewing or working on on their screen and better search the web. These are the same “Apple Intelligence” features that the company promised to deliver in 2024 but later postponed, explaining that it was unhappy with the AI’s performance and reliability.
In 2027, a new upgrade will make Siri feel more like a real chatbot, meaning users can communicate back and forth with the assistant (including via voice), as is common with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini chatbots. Apple also plans to integrate the smarter Siri more deeply into the operating system, which could make it a more functional intermediary between the user and the device’s capabilities.
The information reports that Apple is also in the early stages of developing a small personal AI device – about the size of an AirTag – that can clip onto a lapel and contain two cameras, three microphones, a small speaker, a battery and inductive charging technology. (A patent search turned up no Apple designs that fit this description.) OpenAI attracted a lot of attention last year announce that it was developing a personal AI device in collaboration with Apple’s former design guru Jony Ive. However, it’s worth noting that other companies have tried to sell such a product, most notably Humane (founded by a number of ex-Applers), and none of them have had much success.
A new AI leader within Apple
The Google Gemini deal and the AI device reports come in the wake of quite a major power shift at Apple regarding the company’s AI strategy. Apple struggled for years to build its own AI models under the leadership of ex-Google AI chief John Giannandrea (while balancing historic concerns about data privacy), failing to deliver models that performed like those from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
Now Apple has done that reportedly put its consumer AI problems in the lap of software chief Craig Fedherighi, who is known for his problems long hair and utilitarian (and somewhat skeptical) views of the new technology. Fedherighi sees AI as a technology that should work behind the scenes to make phone functions work better. He also expressed concerns about the predictability and reliability of the technology.
Fedherighi takes charge at a crucial moment. Apple is in a tough spot when it comes to AI. It fears it will appear to fall even further behind OpenAI (and the punishment Wall Street could receive for doing so), but has also traditionally been wary of rushing into an emerging technology that is not yet fully proven and reliable (AI chatbots still make mistakes and consumers don’t fully trust them). Apple is most comfortable taking a mature technology (like cell phones) and reinventing it for the mainstream with simplicity, usability, and artful design.
So working with Google, talking about plans for new Gemini features in the future, and preparing a personal AI device might be the right move for Apple right now. The deal with Google buys Apple time while its own researchers find ways to balance the twin needs of data privacy and high-performing models. (It could also shift some of the responsibility to Google if the new Siri doesn’t work as promised.)
Being late has worked out before
There is a precedent for this. Apple relied on Intel processors in its computers as it built the expertise and experience to make its own processors. Apple used Intel processors in its Mac computers for fifteen years before switching to Apple-designed chips. But planning the features of future Macs was difficult because it all depended on Intel’s roadmap for releasing new chips. Apple became acutely aware of the speed and efficiency gains that could be achieved by designing custom chips that could be deeply integrated with the Mac operating system. These improvements were first realized in the company’s first M-series Macs in late 2020.
Apple also relied entirely on Qualcomm’s mobile modem chips for the iPhone before it could build its own chips. The first Apple-designed modem, the C1, was shipped in the iPhone 16e in 2025. While Qualcomm says it will continue to supply modems for iPhones into 2026, Apple’s intention is to build its own modem into the integrated silicon “system-on-a-chip” processor that powers iPhones, which could deliver faster and more reliable mobile connections.
However, in other cases, such as web search, Apple has been content to rely on Google as a partner. Who knows, maybe Apple believes that generative AI will become a commodity in the future (models will indeed become more efficient and cheaper to access), something that it would rather buy than build.
The news of an Apple AI device doesn’t hurt either. It shows an Apple that still has the hunger to shape emerging technologies in its own image and bring them to the mainstream, even without Ives.
Apple’s relationship with generative AI has thus far been considered shaky and largely unsuccessful. That story may have seeped through the shell of Apple’s Cupertino spaceship and created a rush to ship a technology that wasn’t quite ready yet. The hype around generative AI is now so great that we are quick to condemn any technology company that does not focus on it.
But it’s part of Apple’s culture to take the long view of new waves of technology (note that the company name didn’t change when the “metaverse” was at its peak). The hesitation, intentional or not, could give the company more time to assess the true scale of the AI revolution, and more time to understand what it all should mean for Apple and its customers.
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