What Happened with Apple Intelligence?
Apple Intelligence was announced with fanfare at WWDC 2024.
Siri was finally getting smarter, your devices would understand context, and Apple’s take on generative AI would be private, powerful, and personal. I even wrote my own article about it last September at the height of the hype. Back then, I wrote the following:
First-generation software products are never perfect, so I'm eager to see how the world of Apple Intelligence evolves over time. We're at a point where AI is the least effective it's ever going to be, and we've already seen how quickly things have progressed over these past few years.
But as 2025 rolled in, many users (myself included) were left wondering: where is it?
The Promise
Apple Intelligence is the company’s boldest software move in a decade. We were promised features like:
A context-aware Siri that could understand follow-up questions.
AI-powered writing tools and notification summaries.
Privacy-first design, with on-device and hybrid cloud models.
Seamless integration with ChatGPT.
It was the best of OpenAI and Google, wrapped in Apple’s polish and privacy.
The Reality
Several months later, most of these features are MIA.
Siri didn’t get smarter. Writing tools launched in limited form. Even Apple’s own demo at WWDC reportedly showcased features that weren’t actually working at the time. Internally, Apple’s AI teams have struggled with leadership, culture, and a reluctance to take risks — as reported by media outlets earlier this year.
For a company known for its “it just works” magic, this has been one of its rougher software rollouts.
This was followed by confirmation last March that much of the missing features were delayed until 2026. During Apple's March press briefing, spokeswoman Jacqueline Roy said:
“We’ve also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.”
On his X account, Mark Gurman said:
Mark Gurman on X
This is in contrast to what Apple kept showing all this time: their ad campaign for Apple Intelligence had been ever-present. During the chaos, Apple even had to pull an iPhone 16 ad that showed the “more personal Siri” experience.
So in all, it looks like we must wait for now.
My Experience
I've had the chance to test what's currently available using my iPhone 16 Pro Max. For the most part, I like what I've seen so far:
Genmoji, while not necessarily useful, is pretty fun to play with.
Notification Summaries have also been somewhat helpful, if not hilarious whenever it fails.
Mail summaries have also been promising.
But Siri? Still stuck in 2016.
It's always a bit heartbreaking when you see other systems work so well, yet Siri seemingly tries to search the web for everything. Competition for Siri has become increasingly fierce, and it shows. It's very unlike Apple.
That said, I appreciate that Apple is prioritizing privacy. Running AI on-device is a harder path, but one that could ultimately lead to better, more trustworthy tools.
Why I'm Still Hopeful
All this being said, there are still reasons to be optimistic.
Apple recently appointed Mike Rockwell, the leader behind Vision Pro, to head up Siri’s overhaul. This has been followed by a lot of internal restructuring within the company in an effort to make things right. They're reportedly also working on a new single LLM-based architecture for Siri, expected in around two years. So it seems they've been proactive at addressing the shortcomings within this project.
While things are off to a slow and somewhat baffling start, I still hope Apple can turn things around. Maybe Apple stumbled out of the gate, but they’ve made their move and they’ve shown they’re willing to course-correct. If the next two years are about rebuilding Siri and getting Apple Intelligence right, then I’m still excited for what’s ahead.
Sometimes the biggest leaps start with a quiet reboot.
