Apple's Siri AI: Speeding Up or Falling Behind?

Internally, Apple is reportedly experiencing pressure to expedite its artificial intelligence strategy, with CEO John Ternus encouraging faster development for Siri. The goal is to transform Siri into a more agentic AI assistant. While the recently launched Siri AI has introduced helpful features, it still falls short of the highly autonomous agents offered by AI-first companies.

These competitors' agents can proactively manage tasks, write code, and interact more deeply with a user's digital environment. Despite Apple's strong hardware, its software development in AI has been slower than rivals, who are demonstrating advanced agent capabilities. This slower pace has, in some ways, benefited Apple by mitigating public backlash against AI features and highlighting its privacy-first approach.

An agentic Siri could significantly enhance current features, such as automatically scrolling through long emails to find specific information. In the near term, this push may focus on delivering previously announced capabilities like advanced in-app actions. However, if Apple successfully integrates a more competitive AI agent, it could reduce the need for users to install third-party AI applications on their devices, leveraging Apple's trusted privacy framework.