Apple’s Siri Overhaul Delayed, Executives Admit ‘Embarrassing’ Setback
Apple’s highly-anticipated revamp of Siri, featuring on-screen awareness and enhanced context understanding, has hit a major snag. According to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the release of these key features has been delayed, causing considerable internal consternation.
In a recent all-hands meeting, Robby Walker, Apple’s senior director within the Siri division, reportedly characterized the delay as both “ugly” and “embarrassing.” The situation is apparently far more precarious than previously indicated. Gurman’s report reveals that, despite the fanfare surrounding the features, during the WWDC 2024 keynote, the company had only a video mock-up and a “barely working prototype.” This exposed a significant gap between Apple’s public promises and the technology’s readiness.
“During the all-hands gathering, Walker suggested that employees on his team may be feeling angry, disappointed, burned out, and embarrassed after the features were postponed,” Gurman writes. People familiar with the matter say the features aren’t expected until next year at the earliest. Apple had been pushing to have the technology ready for this spring.
This crisis has been compounded by the fact that Apple heavily promoted these unrealized features, including in an iPhone 16 ad campaign that highlighted Siri’s on-screen awareness. The ad has since been made private on YouTube, reflecting the company’s attempt to manage the fallout. Despite the “intense personal accountability” taken by Apple executives, according to Gurman, there are no immediate plans to remove any top executives, with the exception this could change at any moment.
While the situation is dire, there is some hope. The onscreen awareness of Siri apparently worked effectively between two-thirds and 80% when tested. Ultimately, the executives decided that was not high enough to be a satisfactory user experience.
During the meeting, Walker demonstrated some of the new Siri’s functionalities, such as finding a driver’s license number, retrieving specific photographs of a child, and controlling apps through voice commands. Apple is hard at work in addressing this AI crisis, and the company is focusing on making Siri more interactive by 2027.
