Apple's Siri overhaul: AI smarts, App Intents, and more expected in 2026

Apple

Apple is pushing forward with one of its most ambitious Siri updates in years but it’s arriving later than originally planned. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the long-awaited App Intents feature and a broader Siri infrastructure overhaul are now expected to debut next spring, likely timed with iOS 26.4. The rollout will mark the first major step in transforming Siri from a basic voice assistant into something that can actually take meaningful actions inside your apps.

Initially, Apple aimed to ship these capabilities during the iOS 18 cycle, but engineering setbacks derailed the timeline. The result: Apple now has nearly an extra year to get it right  and to avoid a disastrous public launch. App Intents is designed to let Siri interact more deeply with apps, performing tasks on your behalf without you having to tap through menus. This is Apple’s answer to the AI-driven assistants promised by rivals, but the execution needs to be flawless to rebuild Siri’s reputation.

Internally, Apple knows the stakes. Gurman reports that while progress has been made, the team is still wrestling with reliability issues. The main challenge is ensuring the feature works seamlessly across a wide range of apps and delivers results accurate enough for high-stakes situations. Those include sensitive areas like health and banking, where even a small error could have serious consequences. Apple is testing the technology with several major partners to iron out these issues before launch.

Notably, the feature won’t be available universally on day one. Apple is considering sharply limiting Siri’s actions in categories where the risk of mistakes is too high, or excluding them entirely at launch. That’s a clear sign the company is prioritizing stability over flashy capabilities,  a smart move, given Siri’s fragile standing in the AI race.

The overhaul is expected to be marketed heavily. Apple showcased its vision for an “all-new” Siri at WWDC 2024, promising an assistant that could not only answer questions but actively take actions from booking reservations to sending files, all with natural voice commands. Those promises raised expectations, but also increased the pressure. If the launch next spring goes poorly, Apple could face lasting reputational damage in a space where it’s already lagging behind competitors like Google and OpenAI.

The company is treating the spring release as a critical proving ground. If Siri’s new App Intents-powered capabilities deliver as promised, it could finally move beyond being a punchline and start to reclaim ground in the AI assistant market. But failure here isn’t just a missed opportunity, it would reinforce the narrative that Apple simply can’t keep up in the era of generative AI.