Apple finds itself under increasing scrutiny as its efforts to combine Siri and artificial intelligence continue to lag. The company has officially postponed features initially announced in June 2023, which were intended to revitalize Siri and strengthen Apple’s position in the AI race. The timeline for these long-awaited Apple Intelligence capabilities remains unclear—and if recent internal discussions are any indication, even Apple seems uncertain about when they will materialize.
Details of a recent all-hands meeting led by Robby Walker, Apple’s senior director overseeing the Siri division, have emerged, shedding light on the challenges within the team. Describing the delay as an “ugly” situation, Walker acknowledged the frustration and burnout felt by employees amid the setbacks and Siri’s ongoing reputation for underperformance.
He also tempered expectations, cautioning that the delayed features may not be ready for iOS 19, the company’s current target release. “Doesn’t mean that we’re shipping then,” Walker reportedly told staff, meaning in typical Apple fashion, the feature will likely be announced a lot earlier before it reaches customers.
According to Bloomberg’s report, Walker added that:
We have other commitments across Apple to other projects. We want to keep our commitments to those, and we understand those are now potentially more timeline-urgent than the features that have been deferred.
The leaked meeting also showed growing friction between the company’s Siri development team and its marketing division. According to Walker, the communications team had pushed to promote advanced features—such as Siri’s ability to understand personal context and act based on what’s displayed on a user’s screen—despite the fact that these capabilities were far from ready.
Walker acknowledged that the teasers showcased at WWDC and the resulting customer expectations had only exacerbated the situation. In response, Apple has since removed an iPhone 16 ad that highlighted these features and added disclaimers to several sections of its website, noting that the capabilities have been delayed to an unspecified date.
The decision to hold back these features was reportedly driven by significant quality issues. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the problems were so severe that the features failed to work properly up to a third of the time.