Apple’s long-awaited AI reboot of Siri is reportedly facing internal delays, just days before the 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
This news has sparked fresh concerns among investors who were banking on Apple’s AI comeback to catch up with rivals like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI with the expected Siri AI overhaul.
According to insiders familiar with the situation, the Siri overhaul—internally dubbed “Project Blackbird”—was set to unveil a more intelligent, more conversational assistant powered by on-device language models. However, progress has reportedly stalled due to integration issues across Apple’s tightly coupled ecosystem.
🔁 Late to the AI Race?
While competitors are already releasing multimodal agents and deeply embedded assistants in productivity tools, Apple has been relatively silent on significant developments in generative AI.
Siri, originally a pioneering voice assistant, has long suffered from clunky functionality, a lack of contextual memory, and underwhelming developer integrations.
The AI arms race has exploded since 2022, yet Apple has not released a single foundation model. Instead, it has been investing heavily in acquiring AI talent and infrastructure, including its mysterious data centre project in Iowa and ongoing silicon optimisations for edge inferencing.
📉 Investor Reaction on Delay of Siri AI Overhaul
Apple’s stock slipped slightly this week following the news of the delay, as analysts downgraded short-term AI expectations. “Investors are clearly hungry for a bold vision,” says Arvind Patel, an analyst at IonIQ Capital. “Apple can’t afford to be coy at WWDC. We expect not just features, but a roadmap.”
Many hoped Apple would finally introduce a ChatGPT-style agent capable of handling real productivity tasks and integrating with Apple Mail, Notes, Calendar, and even Xcode.
Without clear signals, speculation is rising that the WWDC keynote might only feature minor improvements rather than a transformative leap.
🧠 What Could Be Announced Instead?
Despite the Siri stall, Apple may still showcase AI features in specific apps—like auto-summarization in Safari, real-time transcription in Voice Memos, or even smart text suggestions across devices.
There’s also speculation that Apple might introduce a “Private AI” brand, emphasising privacy-preserving machine learning that runs entirely on-device —an area where Apple could differentiate itself from the cloud-heavy approaches of others.
🥊 The Bigger Picture: Apple’s AI Moment?
Apple’s challenge is unique: it must innovate without compromising its tightly controlled ecosystem or its privacy-first marketing stance. But time is running out.
Microsoft and Google are embedding AI into every corner of the desktop and cloud experience. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is already being used to write emails, schedule meetings, and code software.
If Apple fails to deliver a serious AI play this year, it risks being labelled a laggard in the most important tech transformation of the decade.
All eyes now turn to June 10, when Tim Cook will take the stage at WWDC. Will Apple surprise the world with a powerful Siri 2.0—or deliver another cautious update?
