Apple Is Developing Three New AI Features, Starting With Siri AI
When it comes to tech companies leading the AI race, Apple is probably at the bottom of the list. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. In my view, many of us don’t care about the latest AI features companies are implementing in their products—we just want the products we use to work, and to work well.
But by focusing solely on AI development, Apple lags significantly behind competitors like Google and Microsoft. While Android and Windows offer a wealth of AI capabilities, whether through Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s GPT models, Apple’s own AI developments are much more limited. Both Google and Microsoft promote their AI assistants as the cornerstone of their marketing strategies; meanwhile, Apple discontinued its AI assistant, Siri, after promised updates were continually delayed .
This doesn’t mean there aren’t any AI features here—far from it. Starting with iOS 18 , Apple introduced AI features under the Apple Intelligence umbrella, including features like Image Playground, AI-powered image editing, and Write Tools. But again, these features aren’t iPhone sellers, and Apple seems to understand this. It seems the company has been developing AI behind the scenes more recently than in the flesh.
Despite all this, the company continues to make significant progress in the field of artificial intelligence. Moreover, the company plans to implement three key new AI features , at least according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman .
Siri AI
Remember how I said Apple’s Siri update keeps getting delayed ? Well, as often happens, AI-powered Siri may arrive earlier than expected—at least partially. According to Gurman, Apple plans to release the “new Siri” in iOS 26.4, and the assistant itself will receive a “refreshed” design in iOS 27, which will be released next year.
If you recall, Apple promised an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Siri in iOS 18 that would be smarter than any previous version of Siri. This AI-powered Siri was highly contextual, understanding what you meant in your requests without having to be hyper-specific. Furthermore, the assistant could pull information from various sources, such as messages or emails, to fulfill your requests and even had an agent mode to perform actions on your behalf. This is similar to how AI-powered browsers allow you to ask the assistant to perform actions on the web. It’s certainly futuristic, but not necessarily useful and unsafe .
As is often the case, Apple has had significant problems launching these features. The company’s new Siri is a complex engineering challenge that wasn’t solved in time for iOS 18 and was delayed until iOS 26.0. If the schedule holds, these changes should appear in version 26.4 and may even be partially implemented based on Google’s Gemini model . However, iOS 26.4 is likely four months away: Apple just released iOS 26.1 and is beta testing iOS 26.2 , and neither update includes Siri updates. Since the company released iOS 18.4 in March of this year, we’ll likely see 26.4 in March 2026. If so, the new Siri interface will arrive just a quarter later.
According to Gurman, Siri will be completely updated next year. The assistant will become more conversational and will form the foundation of Apple’s future smart home strategy. But that’s still a long way off.
AI-powered healthcare agent
Gurman reports that Apple is also working on an AI agent that will be able to advise users on health-related matters. The service, codenamed “Project Mulberry,” combines the new Health app, a subscription (Health+), and an AI health assistant. This assistant can use data from the Health app to generate recommendations and is trained by real doctors in various medical specialties. According to Gurman, “if the Health app receives data on unfavorable heart rate trends, a video explaining the risks of cardiovascular disease could appear.”
The company is actually opening a studio to record videos for this service and may invite a “top doctor” to be the “host” of Health+. (I’m betting on Dr. Mike , but he might be the only top doctor I know of.)
Gurman claims this AI health assistant could arrive as early as iOS 26.4, alongside the new Siri AI assistant. It will be interesting to see how Apple addresses two key issues with this feature: AI sometimes makes mistakes (and sometimes just makes things up), so trusting it to provide medical advice raises some concerns. Add to this the fact that Apple will use user data to inform the AI on how to process medical recommendations, and questions about user privacy arise . The company prides itself on privacy, so I imagine it will have a clear plan in place, but if this AI health assistant does launch, these issues will need to be addressed.
Web search tool
Finally, Gurman claims that Apple has “plans to build an AI-powered web search tool.” The company calls this tool “Answers to the World’s Questions” and aims to compete with similar search engines from companies like OpenAI and Perplexity.
The “Answers to the World” feature will be integrated directly into Siri and possibly also appear in Safari and Spotlight. It could include text, images, videos, and information about “local attractions,” as well as AI-generated summaries. The idea is to allow users to ask questions within Apple’s own suite of products, rather than using other AI-powered search tools. It will likely arrive alongside these two features in iOS 26.4.
Will these AI capabilities be enough to catch up with Apple and the rest of the AI market? I’m not sure. But I’m not sure the company needs to catch up. While Microsoft has made AI a cornerstone of its new Windows features, it’s not the reason people buy PCs. Similarly, few people choose smartphones, tablets, and computers based on which one has the best AI assistant or the best AI feature set: Apple, Google, or Microsoft. AI may be profitable right now, but it’s not enough to keep Apple at the top and keep it among the largest companies in the world.