Apple has been making headlines lately for its sluggish progress in everything related to Siri and artificial intelligence. The features that were initially announced in June and were intended to modernize Siri and give Apple a much-needed boost in the AI race have been officially delayed by the company. We still don’t know when those Apple Intelligence capabilities will arrive, and if a recent all-hands meeting is anything to go by, neither does Apple itself.
Bloomberg has all the information about a Siri team meeting that was led by senior director Robby Walker, who is in charge of the division. He referred to the delay as an “ugly” circumstance and expressed empathy for employees who may be exhausted or frustrated by Apple’s decisions and Siri’s still-poor reputation. Additionally, despite the fact that the company’s current goal is to include the missing Siri features in iOS 19 this year, he cautioned employees that “doesn’t mean that we’re shipping then.”
“We have other commitments across Apple to other projects,” Walker said, according to Bloomberg’s report. “We want to keep our commitments to those, and we understand that those may now be more urgent than the features that have been deferred,” the company stated. The meeting also gave hints that the marketing division and Apple’s Siri unit were at odds.
Even though they were far from ready, Walker stated that the communications team wanted to highlight features like Siri’s ability to understand personal context and take action based on what is currently displayed on a user’s screen. Walker acknowledged that the customer expectations set by those WWDC teases only exacerbated the situation.
Apple has since pulled an iPhone 16 ad that showcased the features and has added disclaimers to several areas of its website noting they’ve all been punted to a TBD date. Mark Gurman claims that quality issues “resulted in them not working properly up to a third of the time” held them back.
Beyond the statement it made last week, in which it stated that the advanced Siri capabilities were “taking longer than expected,” Apple has not provided any other public commentary on the situation.
However, Walker informed his staff that senior executives such as software chief Craig Federighi and AI boss John Giannandrea are taking “intense personal accountability” for a situation that is drawing severe criticism as the months pass with little to show for it other than a prettier Siri animation.
Walker stated that senior executives are taking this responsibility for the situation. Walker stated, “Customers are not only expecting these new features but they also want a more fully rounded Siri.” “As soon as they are ready, we are going to ship these features and more.”
He praised the team for its “incredibly impressive” work so far. “These are not quite ready to go to the general public, even though our competitors might have launched them in this state or worse,” he said of the delayed features.