Apple is making a major push to revive its struggling AI ambitions by rebuilding Siri from the ground up. After launching Apple Intelligence features last year, the company has faced significant internal hurdles. According to a detailed report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s efforts have faltered due to leadership hesitation, late investments in AI, and technical limitations in its original plan to bolt generative AI onto the old Siri system.
One of the core issues was the company’s reluctance to invest heavily in AI infrastructure. Software chief Craig Federighi hesitated to commit funds without clear goals, while AI chief John Giannandrea underestimated consumer interest in AI tools like chatbots. Apple also lagged behind competitors, having started its AI development only after ChatGPT’s 2022 debut. The result was a fragmented approach that led to constant setbacks and failed integration between the old Siri and the new generative AI components.
Marketing efforts added pressure, promoting features such as an enhanced Siri and deep app context integration that were ultimately delayed. Internally, tensions grew as Giannandrea, an outside hire, struggled to gain traction among Apple’s top executives. His perceived lack of urgency and limited push for funding weakened the AI division’s progress. He has since been removed from key AI projects, including Siri.
In response, Apple is now reengineering Siri with a fully LLM-based architecture developed by its AI team in Zurich. This next-gen assistant is expected to be more conversational and better at understanding and synthesizing information. Apple is also exploring private, on-device training techniques and potential AI web search capabilities to enhance Siri’s functionality, possibly through partnerships with platforms like Perplexity.
With new leadership steering development, Apple is betting on a smarter, more adaptive Siri to regain ground in the fast-moving AI landscape.
