According to the latest edition of the Power On newsletter, Apple is facing multiple major hiccups in its AI rollout. While that isn’t a surprise, it does mean that many of its roadmapped features are being delayed, and technical challenges are resulting in certain features, including the ‘more conversational’ Siri update – shipping later.
Conversational Siri delays
Late last year, Gurman reported that Apple was working on an all new ‘LLM Siri’ for iOS 19. This system would merge the two backends for Siri that we currently have today, into one new and unified architecture. Currently, Siri has two entirely separate backends: one for simpler requests and one for more complex requests.
Luckily, ‘LLM Siri’ and its new architecture is still on track to launch with iOS 19. However, it was supposed to be accompanied by a more conversational approach, something more like ChatGPT. Gurman says that is running behind schedule, and will no longer be unveiled in June.
Furthermore, Gurman says that employees within Apple’s AI division now believe that a more conversational version of Siri won’t reach consumers until iOS 20 ‘at best’.
As for the three Siri features anticipated to debut in iOS 18, Gurman says Apple is still on track to release these features in May with iOS 18.5.
Apple Intelligence in iOS 19
Gurman reports that internal Apple data indicates that real world usage of Apple Intelligence is ‘extremely low’. This would suggest that the current feature set isn’t necessarily resonating with consumers.
Top comment by GreenPretzel
Gurman reports that internal Apple data indicates that real world usage of Apple Intelligence is ‘extremely low’.
Somehow that doesn’t surprise me at all, the features they have launched are terribly basic (the writing features are ‘footnotes’ in the list of AI stuff on the S25 line for example, certainly not headline features), and these features feel like they were launched because they are the easiest to do, rather than the ones that would be most useful to consumers.
Despite that, Gurman reports that Apple Intelligence might not necessarily include many improvements in iOS 19:
Everything I’ve heard suggests that iOS 19 will not include any significant consumer-facing changes to Apple Intelligence. A big reason for that is the amount of time Apple is still spending working to get the features announced last year out the door. It’s challenging to move on to next year’s release before this year’s operating system updates have rolled out to customers.
This is quite disappointing, but it makes sense given how far behind they are when it comes to releasing its promised Siri improvements. If this report holds up, this means we won’t see meaningful new Apple Intelligence features until iOS 20 debuts in June of 2027.
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