A report yesterday said that we will see a Siri chatbot as part of iOS 27, despite the company previously dismissing this idea.
If accurate, this will see the company adopt a two-stage strategy to finally giving the new Siri the smarts it has long lacked …
From science fiction to embarrassment
I’ve said before that when Apple first launched Siri way back in 2011, it seemed like a big step toward something that had previously been science fiction. It was the feature that had me upgrade to the iPhone 4S, and I was very impressed with it in those heady early days.
Fast forward to 2026, however, and the so-called intelligent assistant has long been an embarrassment for Apple for all the reasons we’ve discussed at length previously; I don’t need to rehash them here.
There is one Siri shortcoming I do need to discuss, but I’ll get to that.
Stage 1: A Gemini-powered Siri
Apple has long promised a much smarter new Siri, which was originally going to be powered by Apple Intelligence. That … did not go well.
Things changed dramatically last week, however, when the company confirmed reports that the new Siri will be powered by Google’s Gemini models. While OpenAI’s ChatGPT models took a dramatic early lead in generative AI, it’s now widely considered that Google’s Gemini is at least their equal and in many respects their superior.
Google’s beta launch of its new Gemini-powered Personal Intelligence feature gives us a good preview of what we can expect from the new Siri. The core benefit is the model’s ability to use a complex mix of sources to generate its responses, including personalized information pulled from the Apple apps and services we use.
In terms of Siri being able to act as an intelligent agent to get tasks done, this will be a truly revolutionary improvement compared to present-day Siri.
Stage 2: A Siri chatbot
Apple initially expressed the view that chatbots were not a particularly useful user interface for an onboard intelligent assistant. I suspect the reason for this was that the company was very much focused on agentic AI capabilities – telling Siri what it is we want to achieve and having it use the onboard apps in order to complete the task.
For example, we might ask Siri to book a table for dinner at that Thai restaurant we went to a few months ago and really loved. Siri might be able to retrieve the name of the restaurant using information it is able to pull from things like a text message confirmation of the previous reservation, our Apple Maps history, or a photo we took while we were there. It can then use a reservation app to book a table for us and let us know when we receive confirmation.
I do personally think that agentic AI is set to be the most useful development in this field, but that doesn’t mean that there is no role at all for a chatbot.
The role of a chatbot
I said there was one Siri failing I do need to discuss here, and that’s the fact that it is appallingly bad at context. If you ask Siri one question or give it one instruction, and then immediately follow-up with a related question, it will often act like it has absolutely no idea what you were talking about just three seconds earlier.
Q: Hey Siri, who played Batman in the most recent movie?
A: in May 2019, Robert Pattinson was cast as Bruce Wayne/Batman
Q: What about Robin?
A: I don’t know who Robyn is
This is an area where chatbots shine, getting progressively better at it over time. For example, these are the opening responses from a series of questions I just asked ChatGPT, deliberately using the kind of vague language a typical non-techie might use.
That’s a flow Siri can only dream of at present. ChatGPT can even reference topics we discussed days or weeks ago. (Though it claims it didn’t know it was referencing something I wrote, when I asked the question half an hour later.)
Of course, all the usual chatbot cautions apply: incorrect answers, outdated information, and sometimes wild hallucinations. (Although the examples I give above are using it like Google, because that’s what most people do, I don’t personally tend to use it in that way: I mostly use it for brainstorming ideas.)
We should expect plenty of glitches from the new Siri. But none of that changes the fact that conversational flows are an extremely useful capability, so I do think Apple has made the right decision to go this route as a supplement to agentic AI features.
Do you agree or disagree? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash
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