According to CNBC, Apple has officially delayed its major “more personal Siri” AI assistant upgrade from 2025 to sometime in “the coming year,” meaning 2026. CEO Tim Cook told investors in October that progress has “raised the bar meaningfully,” with analyst Gene Munster noting Apple’s message was essentially to expect something that will “blow you away” next year. The delay comes even after Apple ran ads for the feature, highlighting the high stakes as consumers grow used to rivals like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Apple’s stock is up 12% in 2025, largely on a strong iPhone 17 launch, but AI-centric Google’s stock has surged over 60% this year, underscoring the market’s AI focus.
Siri’s Big Gamble
Here’s the thing: Apple is playing a very risky, very un-Apple game. They’ve publicly telegraphed a major software pivot and then missed their own deadline. That’s almost unheard of. Usually, they just stay silent until they’re ready to ship. So why break the pattern? Basically, they had to. The investor pressure was getting too loud. They needed to say *something* to assure the market they weren’t asleep at the wheel while Google and Microsoft integrated AI into everything.
But promising and delivering are two different things. The technical depth here is immense. Siri isn’t just getting a new voice; it needs a complete architectural overhaul. Current assistants are brittle, command-based systems. The “more personal” Siri needs to be a true, on-device, contextual large language model that understands nuance, remembers past conversations, and executes complex, multi-app tasks reliably. And it has to do all this while maintaining Apple’s fanatical dedication to privacy. That’s a monumental engineering challenge Google and others are tackling with cloud-heavy approaches.
The Hardware Question
This is where it gets really interesting for Apple. AI isn’t just software. It’s hungry for specialized silicon. Google has its Tensor chips. Apple has its Neural Engine, but is it enough? I think next year’s AI push will be inextricably linked to new hardware capabilities. We’re probably talking about a new generation of iPhones, iPads, and Macs with significantly more neural processing power to run these complex models locally.
And that’s a key trade-off. Cloud AI is easier to update and can be more powerful, but it raises privacy and latency concerns. On-device AI is private and fast, but it’s constrained by the phone in your pocket. Apple’s whole brand is built on privacy and seamless experience, so their hand is forced. They have to master on-device AI. Can they do it well enough to make Siri feel *smarter* than asking ChatGPT? That’s the billion-dollar question.
Investor Patience Isn’t Infinite
Look, the 12% stock bump this year is nice, but it’s largely hardware-driven. The 60%+ surge for Google? That’s an AI premium. The market is voting with its dollars, and right now, it’s betting on the companies perceived to be leading the AI charge. Apple’s “wait and see” approach in 2025 was a calculated punt. But in 2026, they have to score a touchdown.
Gene Munster’s quote is telling: “They basically said that this year, don’t bother us about AI, and we’ll blow you away by what we show next year.” That sets a massive expectation. If what they show next year is just a competent catch-up to where Google Gemini is *today*, it’ll be seen as a failure. They need to leapfrog the competition. They need to redefine what a personal assistant is. After years of Siri being a punchline, the pressure has never been higher. The entire narrative around Apple’s innovation mojo is on the line.
