Apple has unveiled Siri AI, a major overhaul of its digital assistant that brings more conversational artificial intelligence into iPhone, Mac, iPad and other Apple products.
The update was announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in California, with the beta expected to launch later this year. For media, marketing and app businesses, the shift signals a larger role for AI assistants in how consumers search, navigate apps, manage content and interact with digital services.
Siri AI will be able to draw on personal context, understand what is on a user’s screen, retrieve information from the internet and continue conversations across Apple devices through iCloud. Apple will also make Siri AI available through a standalone app, bringing it closer to assistant products from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.
Siri AI in Apple Maps
Apple leans on privacy in AI pitch
The Siri upgrade is powered by Apple Intelligence and the company’s latest Apple Foundation Models, which were developed following Apple’s partnership with Google earlier this year.
Apple said its approach remains centred on privacy, with processing designed to run on-device or through secure cloud environments. The company has positioned this as a key difference from rivals as it works to close the perceived AI gap with Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and others.
Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said the company wanted AI features to be useful rather than added for their own sake.
“Truly helpful AI must be centred on our users’ needs,” Federighi said, adding that the experience was built with privacy “at every step”.
What Siri AI can do
Apple’s demonstrations showed Siri AI holding more natural back-and-forth conversations and using information from apps such as Messages, Calendar and Photos.
In one example, Siri was shown finding specific photos and sharing them with a group without the user opening the Photos app. Apple also showed the assistant finding previously sent addresses and using personal context to complete tasks.
On iPhone, Siri AI will appear through a new Dynamic Island animation, with users able to swipe down from the top of the screen to chat with the assistant. On Mac, the chatbot will be integrated into Spotlight Search.
Siri AI will initially be available in English. It will not launch in the European Union or China at first, with Apple citing regulatory issues in Europe.
Siri AI in iMessage
AI expands across Apple apps
The Siri announcement formed part of Apple’s broader 2027 software update, including iOS 27 and new versions of iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and visionOS.
Safari will gain AI tools that organise tabs into topics, monitor websites for changes and create extensions from user descriptions. Photos will receive new editing features, including tools to reframe images and improve Apple’s Clean Up function.
Image Playground will also be expanded to generate more realistic images. Apple said AI-edited or generated images will include an invisible SynthID watermark to identify them as synthetic or AI-modified content.
Messages and Phone will gain contextual prompts, such as turning information into reminders or surfacing booking details and confirmation codes during calls.
Child safety and parental controls updated
Apple also announced new trust and safety features, including expanded parental approval tools for children’s contacts and browsing permissions.
The company said it will automatically blur images sent to a child’s device if they are flagged as potentially inappropriate for sexual or violent content.
The updates come as technology companies face growing scrutiny over children’s safety, app store moderation and AI-generated explicit content.
Cook’s final WWDC as Apple CEO
The keynote also marked Tim Cook’s final WWDC as Apple chief executive. Cook is set to step down in September after 15 years in the role.
He will be replaced by John Ternus, Apple’s hardware engineering chief, who was present at the event but did not speak during the main keynote.
Cook used the event to thank developers and Apple staff, calling his time leading the company the “honour of a lifetime”.
Apple’s share price reaction was muted after the announcements. The company remains under pressure to show that its delayed AI strategy can translate into meaningful everyday tools for users.
Top image: Tim Cook