Apple prepares major Siri overhaul as AI chatbot ambitions come into focus

Apple has announced that it is planning on huge changes to Siri, the company’s voice assistant program, following many years of gradual updates to technology that left many people questioning Siri’s abilities. Recent reports indicate that Apple is planning on building a fully functional artificial intelligence chatbot to replace Siri and have it available to all users sometime later this year. Bloomberg News and Reuters are reporting this change as Apple’s most significant attempt to date at responding to the rise of conversational AI applications. The name of the internal project to develop the new Siri has been called Campos. The new version of Siri will replace the previous assistant interface and will be built into all of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems and will work within those devices. The new Siri will replace the older version, which used commands. The way the new Siri will operate will be more in line with what users currently do when they interact with AI tools today, such as ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, by having ongoing conversations via both text and voice.

Why Apple is changing course

For Apple, the shift is not about introducing something new & shiny, but rather because it has to be. Their earlier "Apple Intelligence" thing in 2024 just didn't get the momentum going, especially when you look at the speed at which their rivals are moving forward. In reality, users still had a tough time getting Siri to work properly on even the super basic stuff, never mind follow-ups or more complex requests that require some smarts.

The redesign of the chatbot is actually a big recognition that AI assistants are turning into the front doors of the app, not just some background service you can ignore. Apple's Craig Federighi was always pretty clear that he wanted AI to be working quietly in the background, not all up in your face, so this reported change of heart suggests that user behavior and the fact that they are falling behind in the AI stakes has left them with no choice.

Google Gemini under the hood

A big part of this change is the fact that Apple just confirmed a new partnership with Google to use Google's Gemini models to give Siri a bit of a boost. A couple of weeks back, Apple said it would be using some of Google's Gemini tech. Bloomberg now tells us that the bits of Siri that are being overhauled will be using a more advanced custom version of Gemini models, internally known as Apple Foundation Models version 11, which is basically the same as Google's Gemini 3.

This partnership highlights how Apple is willing to admit that it doesn't have all the answers and that they are happy to use some of the expertise that other people have, rather than trying to do everything in-house & on their own. As for Google, well, this is a pretty big win for them in terms of validating how far Gemini has come.

What users should expect

If the reports are coming in accurately, users should probably be able to expect to see a few things change:

• Conversations that feel a lot more naturalalong with a much better job remembering context

• Answers that come at you a lot faster when you give it a complex request, the kind that needs a few steps to get sorted out

• A unified experience across all your Apple devices, rather than feeling like you're working with a collection of separate skills

Mark Gurman at Bloomberg is already speculating that Siri's chatbot might take the main stage at WWDC in June (that's potentially tied to iOS 27, by the way), and if that's the case, developers are going to get a head start on figuring out where Apple is headed with AI in the ecosystem.

Beyond Siri

Apple's got bigger ambitions with AI, and it's not just about software. They're apparently working on an AI-powered smart badge, which just so happens to come equipped with cameras, microphones, a speaker, and wireless charging. It's still pretty early days for this thing, but a 2027 launch is being talked about, which suggests Apple is experimenting with some new ideas for AI-powered hardware.

For now, the Siri makeover looks like the most significant indication yet that conversational AI is no longer just a nice-to-have; it's a must-have.

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