Apple rolls out “Siri AI” at WWDC, betting on Apple Intelligence for a more conversational, context-aware assistant

Apple on Monday unveiled “Siri AI,” a rebuilt version of its long-running voice assistant, positioning it as the latest major use of Apple Intelligence, the company’s on-device and cloud-assisted AI platform. In a press release tied to its WWDC keynote, Apple said Siri AI is designed to be more conversational and to understand personal context, with features that can draw on information from messages, emails, photos, and what’s visible on a user’s screen.

Apple described Siri AI as having “onscreen awareness,” including the ability to answer questions about content on the user’s display. It also said the assistant can use personal context understanding to search across apps, and that developers can enable some of that context for third-party apps through Spotlight integration. For live, up-to-date questions, Apple said Siri AI can use “broad world knowledge” from the web to generate answers, and supports follow-up questions as part of a richer back-and-forth conversation.

Apple’s upgrade goes beyond chat. The company said Siri AI includes a dedicated app that lets users revisit prior conversations, with history synced across products via iCloud. It also said Siri mode is integrated into the iPhone Camera, bringing “visual intelligence” actions to iPhone through a new workflow for taking actions based on what the camera is showing. On iPad and Mac, Apple said visual intelligence is available through screenshot and on-screen selection workflows, while Apple Vision Pro can invoke Siri AI by looking at a 3D visualization.

For writing and editing, Apple said Siri AI adds integrated writing tools that let users draft and revise text from wherever they type. The press release described writing behaviors that can adapt to a user’s typical punctuation and tone in Mail and Messages, plus automated proofreading “across the system,” including within most third-party apps. Apple also pointed to expanded capabilities inside everyday apps, including editing in Photos and browsing-related enhancements in Safari, as part of its next generation Apple Intelligence features.

Apple said Siri AI features are available for developer testing starting that day, with availability on iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and visionOS 27. It added that watchOS support would arrive in a future watchOS 27 beta, and that Siri AI would be offered later in 2026 as a beta for users with supported devices set to English, with language support expected to expand. Apple also listed device and configuration requirements for Apple Intelligence and Siri AI availability, including that iPhone 16 models or later, iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max, and selected iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro hardware are required.

In a separate update also dated Monday, Apple said European Union regulators under the Digital Markets Act prevented it from shipping Siri AI on iPhone and iPad with the release of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. Apple said it has no timeline for EU iOS and iPadOS availability, while EU users can access Siri AI on macOS 27, visionOS 27, and watchOS 27. Apple attributed the block to a requirement, as interpreted by EU regulators, that virtual assistants be given nearly unlimited direct access to private data and the ability to control other installed apps, and said it proposed an intermediary approach that regulators rejected.

What Apple did not fully disclose is how quickly Siri AI features will expand beyond English, how much of the feature set will match across regions at launch, or any detailed performance benchmarks compared with alternative assistants. The company also did not provide a public timetable for resolving EU iOS and iPadOS access, and it stated that Siri AI and other new Apple Intelligence features would not be available in China while it works through regulatory requirements. For now, the clearest next step for developers and early beta users is to test how the new assistant performs across device models, privacy controls, and app integrations promised in Apple’s documentation.