When you think about the tech companies leading the AI race, Apple is near the bottom of the list. As far as I understand, this is not necessarily a bad thing. 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 with its focus on advances in artificial intelligence, Apple is lagging far behind rivals like Google and Microsoft. While Android and Windows are full of AI features, be it Google's Gemini models or OpenAI's GPT models, Apple's own AI achievements are much more limited. Both Google and Microsoft promote their AI assistants as the cornerstone of their marketing strategies; Meanwhile, Apple has pulled the ad for AI Siri. because the promised updates were always delayed.
This doesn't mean there aren't any artificial intelligence features here – far from it. Since iOS 18Apple has introduced artificial intelligence functions as part of Apple Intelligence umbrella, including things like Image Playground, AI image editing, and writing tools. But, again, these features don't sell the iPhone, and Apple seems to know it. Apparently, the company is doing more AI work behind the scenes than in front of him these days.
Despite all this, the company is still serious about artificial intelligence. Actually, the company plans three key new artificial intelligence featuresat least According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
AI Siri
Remember how I talked about Apple's AI Siri update? continues to be delayed? Well, whatever the case may be, AI Siri may be here sooner or later – at least partially. According to Gurman, Apple plans to release a “new Siri” with iOS 26.4, and the assistant will receive a “redesign” with iOS 27 next year.
If you remember, Apple promised an AI-powered Siri with iOS 18 that was smarter than any iteration of Siri that came before. This AI Siri was very contextual, understanding what you meant in your queries without having to be too specific. Additionally, the assistant could pull information from various sources such as messages or emails to fulfill requests and even had an agent mode that allowed you to take actions on your behalf. It's similar to how AI-powered browsers allow you to ask an assistant to do things on the Internet for you. Of course, this is objectively futuristic, but not necessarily useful…and it's not safe.
As it turns out, Apple had a lot of trouble getting these features to work. The company's new Siri is an extreme engineering puzzle that wasn't solved in the iOS 18 release and has been delayed until iOS 26.0. If the schedule continues, these changes should appear in version 26.4, and may even partially run on Google's Gemini model.. However, iOS 26.4 is likely four months away: Apple just released iOS 26.1 and there is iOS 26.2 beta testingand none of the updates include Siri updates. Since the company released iOS 18.4 in March this year, there is a possibility that we will see version 26.4 in March 2026. If so, the new Siri experience may be just a quarter of a year away.
Next year, according to Gurman, Siri is getting a complete makeover. The assistant will be more conversational and will become the basis of Apple's future strategy for creating smart home devices. But this is still a long way off.
AI Health Agent
Gourmand says Apple is also working on an artificial intelligence agent that can educate users on health-related issues. Codenamed Project Mulberry, the service combines a new Health app, a subscription (Health+) and an AI-powered health assistant. This assistant can pull data from the Health app to make its recommendations and is trained by real doctors from different medical professions. According to Gurman, “If the Health app receives data on poor heart rate trends, a video could appear explaining the risks of heart disease.”
What are your thoughts so far?
The company is actually opening a video recording studio for this service and may bring in a “big doctor” to “host” this Health+ service. (My money is on Dr. Mikebut perhaps this is the only major doctor I know.)
Gurman says this AI health agent could arrive as early as iOS 26.4 along with the new Siri AI. It will be interesting to see how Apple addresses two key issues with this feature: AI sometimes makes mistakes (and sometimes just makes mistakes up), so trusting it to provide health advice raises some red flags. Add to this the fact that Apple will use user data to inform AI how to handle medical advice and Questions about user privacy are popping up. The company prides itself on privacy, so I think it will have a clear plan, but if this AI health agent actually gets off the ground, these points will need to be addressed.
Finally, Gourmand says that Apple has “plans to create an artificial intelligence-powered web search tool.” The tool is called “World Knowledge Answers” internally and is designed to compete with similar search tools from companies like OpenAI and Perplexity.
World Knowledge Answers will be integrated directly into Siri and may also appear in Safari and Spotlight. It can include text, images, videos and “local points of interest” as well as AI summaries. The idea is for users to ask questions within Apple's own suite of products, rather than seeing them use other AI-powered search tools. It is likely that it will appear along with two other features in iOS 26.4.
Will these AI features be enough for Apple to catch up with the rest of the AI players? I'm not sure. But I'm not sure that the company needs to catch up. While Microsoft has made artificial intelligence a cornerstone of its new Windows capabilities, it's not the reason people buy PCs. Likewise, few users choose their smartphones, tablets and computers based on whether Apple, Google or Microsoft has the best AI assistant or the best set of AI features. AI may be making big money now, but not in the sense that Apple needs to be at the top to remain one of the biggest companies in the world.
