Apple’s Personalized Siri Delayed Until Next Year, Works Only 80% of the Time

Apple has postponed its highly anticipated Personalized Siri experience until next year, impacting both users and employee morale. However, some of its extensions appear to be functioning. Another “AirPower” failure, where a device is scrapped due to technical issues, is something the company “doesn’t want to experience.” Internal Apple reports suggest some Personalized Siri features are working, albeit not perfectly.

Apple’s Personalized Siri Delayed to 2025, Works Only 80% of the Time, Raising Concerns Over AI Progress

Robby Walker, Apple’s senior director of Siri, demonstrated some of these features at an internal all-hands meeting in the past few weeks. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, while they are in a functional state, they only work about 80 percent of the time. While Apple got an early start on generative AI, the company has had a hard time delivering the features it originally outlined.

These Siri features had originally been expected earlier this year, as part of the iOS 18.4 update, but have since been delayed with some speculation targeting a release in May, or in the iOS 18.5 later this year.

Apple eventually confirmed that the next Siri experience would appear sometime next year. While the features work to some extent, Apple has never shown them off to the public, leaving open the possibility they aren’t ready. As Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has pointed out, some of the features work only two-thirds or 80 percent of the time, well short of polished or reliable. These all must be turned into great user experiences before shipping — which is something Apple will need to do.

Although Apple hasn’t offered a firm timeline, the company has included a disclaimer on its iPhone 16’s product pages that such features are “in development.” Competitors such as Google and OpenAI are progressing quickly with AI innovation. Competitors such as Google and OpenAI are progressing quickly with AI innovation. Google recently unveiled its Gemini 2.0 model, further strengthening its position.

On the other hand, Apple is at the nascent stage of its AI journey and still seems to lag behind industry leaders. Apple has faced persistent delays when it comes to features scheduled for iOS 19, looking at next year at the earliest for the Personalized Siri features, and with its ongoing struggles on the software development front, it only adds to the image of the company struggling not to fall behind in keeping pace with competitors.

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