Apple Has Three New AI Features in the Works, Starting With an AI Siri
When you think about the tech companies leading the AI race, Apple is pretty much at the bottom of the list. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as far as I’m concerned. From where I sit, many of us don’t care about the latest AI features that companies are putting into their products: we just want the products we actually use to work and work well.
But by focusing strictly on AI advancements, Apple is falling far behind competitors like Google and Microsoft. While Android and Windows are packed with AI features, whether through Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s GPT models, Apple’s advances in AI are much more limited. Both Google and Microsoft tout their AI assistants as the cornerstone of their marketing strategies; Meanwhile, Apple pulled AI Siri advertising because promised upgrades were still delayed.
That’s not to say there aren’t any AI features here, far from it. Since iOS 18, Apple has rolled out AI features under the Apple Intelligence umbrella, including things like Image Playground, AI image editing, and writing tools. But again, these features don’t sell iPhones, and it seems Apple knows it. The company seems to be doing more work on AI behind the scenes than in front of it these days.
Despite all this, the company continues to make serious progress in AI. In fact, the company is planning three key new AI features, at least according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
AI Siri
Remember how I said Apple’s Siri AI upgrade kept getting delayed? Well, it turns out that AI Siri might be here sooner rather than later, at least in part. According to Gurman, Apple plans to roll out “a new Siri” with iOS 26.4, while the assistant will get an “overhaul” with next year’s iOS 27.
If you recall, Apple promised an AI-powered Siri with iOS 18 that was smarter than any previous iteration of Siri. This Siri AI was very contextual, understanding what you meant in your requests without you needing to be hyper-specific. Additionally, the assistant could pull information from various sources, such as messages or emails, to respond to requests, and even had an agent mode to take action on your behalf. This is similar to how AI browsers let you ask the assistant to do things on the web for you. It’s objectively futuristic, sure, but not necessarily useful, nor is it secure.
In this case, Apple had a lot of trouble getting these features to work. The company’s new Siri is an extreme engineering headache that wasn’t resolved by the release of iOS 18 and was delayed through iOS 26.0. If on schedule, these changes should arrive in version 26.4 and could even be powered in part by Google’s Gemini model. That said, iOS 26.4 is probably four months away: Apple just released iOS 26.1 and is beta testing iOS 26.2, and neither update comes with Siri upgrades. Since the company released iOS 18.4 in March of this year, it’s likely we’ll see 26.4 in March 2026. If that’s the case, we may only be a quarter of a year away from a new Siri experience.
Next year, Gurman says, Siri will get a facelift. The assistant will be more conversational and power Apple’s upcoming smart home device strategy. But it’s still far away.
AI health worker
Gurman says Apple is also working on an AI agent that can coach users on health-related issues. Codenamed “Project Mulberry”, the service combines a new Health application, a subscription (Health+) and an AI health assistant. This assistant can pull data from the Health app to inform its advice and is trained by real doctors from all medical professions. According to Gurman, “if the Health app receives data on bad heart rate trends, a video explaining heart disease risks could appear.”
What do you think of it so far?
The company is currently opening a studio to record videos for this service, and may bring in a “major medical figure” to “host” this Health+ service. (My money’s on Dr. Mike, but he may be the only major medical figure I know.)
Gurman says this AI health agent could arrive as early as iOS 26.4, alongside the new AI Siri. 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 offer health advice raises red flags. Add to that the fact that Apple will use user data to inform AI on how to handle health advice, and questions about user privacy arise. The company prides itself on privacy, so I imagine it will have a clear plan here, but if this AI health agent actually gets going, these points will need to be addressed.
Finally, Gurman says Apple has “plans for an AI-powered web search tool.” This tool is called “World Knowledge Answers” within the company and is intended to compete with similar search tools from companies like OpenAI and Perplexity.
World Knowledge Answers will integrate directly into Siri and could also be available on Safari and Spotlight. It can include text, images, videos, and “local points of interest,” as well as AI summaries. The idea is to encourage users to ask questions within Apple’s own suite of products, rather than having them use other AI search tools. It’s likely that it will arrive alongside these other two features with iOS 26.4.
Will these AI features be enough to catch up with Apple against the rest of the AI players? I’m not sure. But I’m not sure the company needs to catch up. Even though Microsoft has made AI the cornerstone of its new Windows experiences, it’s not the reason people buy PCs. Likewise, few users choose their smartphones, tablets and computers based on whether Apple, Google or Microsoft have the best AI assistant or the best range of AI features. AI may be making a lot of money right now, but not in a way where Apple needs to be at the top to remain one of the biggest companies in the world.
