- Apple was among the first to release a digital assistant when it introduced Siri in 2011.
- It has struggled to capitalize on the headstart it had.
- Fresh delays in upgrading Siri have set Apple back at a time when AI assistants are the rage.
It was 2011. The newest iPhone on the block was the 4s. And Apple was raring to introduce the world to a major acquisition it had been readying for over a year: Siri.
Bought for an undisclosed sum, the “intelligent assistant” meant Apple was among the first to show smartphone users why they would want or need an AI-powered voice companion in their pocket.
Fast-forward to 2025, and Apple’s promises for Siri look uncertain. The voice assistant that should have given it a headstart in the ChatGPT era is struggling to catch up to a pack of rivals leading with far more powerful AI assistants.
In other words, Apple is falling behind in a race it originally led.
Siri hit by delays
Last week, Apple confirmed that it was delaying generative AI features for Siri that were first shown off at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024. It’s a rare instance in which Apple no longer has a clear release date in sight for a product it has already announced.
Jacqueline Roy, an Apple spokesperson, told the unofficial Apple blog Daring Fireball that “it’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver” on upgraded features that transform Siri into a “more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal” experience.
This has all caused some degree of embarrassment for Apple. Its marketing campaigns for a slate of new devices released over the past several months — including iPhones, iPads, and Macs — consistently mentioned their synchronicity with Apple Intelligence, which Siri is a fundamental part of.
It helps explain why the company has now made a September ad, which stars the actor Bella Ramsey using a Siri feature that does not yet exist, private on its YouTube channel.
“The delay makes a lot of sense,” Hamish Low, an analyst at Enders Analysis, told Business Insider. “Apple clearly got ahead of itself with Apple Intelligence with disappointing features, awkward marketing campaigns, and tepid consumer demand. Apple’s position here is ultimately defensive, it has much more to lose than to gain from the AI race.”
Rivals overtake Siri
Though Apple said it anticipates rolling out the features “in the coming year,” its Apple Intelligence upgrade delays — a tool it once pinned its future on — signals how much of an issue Siri has become at a time when rival services are flourishing.
As companies have spent more time thinking about how to make generative AI useful to consumers, a series of Siri alternatives that embed powerful features have emerged — all while Apple struggles to deliver on all the promises it made for a generative AI-led Siri.
OpenAI and Google have leaned heavily on building AI-powered voice assistants that industry followers say offer a more natural and engaging conversational experience than the one users currently get with Apple.
Amazon, another early mover in the virtual assistant space, introduced a revamped version of Alexa last month that’s free for Prime subscribers. Prominent Apple followers, such as Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, have described it as “ChatGPT Voice Mode on steroids.”
As he put it on X last month, “It is frightening how far behind Apple is in this space.”
“Alexa+ is notable for at least claiming to bring much of the advanced functionality that you would want from a real AI assistant,” Low said. “We will need to see how far it lives up to this with its public launch later this month, but its ability to plug into a host of APIs, and directly access and interact with websites in the background otherwise, is key.”
The stakes are high if Apple fails to get Siri right.
The generative AI age has introduced consumers to a growing assortment of AI-enabled smartphones that threaten to steal market share by offering AI features that offer more value.
Threat to market share has become a key issue for the company in places like China, where it is facing fierce competition from local competitors introducing smartphones with AI capabilities that aim to win over local audiences.
Apple’s dilemma is clear. It is behind in a race that it entered nearly 15 years ago — with a headstart over many rivals — when it introduced Siri as an integrated feature of the iPhone 4s.
Its turnaround plan for Siri has plenty riding on it.
