Apple pushes to transform Siri into autonomous AI agent

Apple CEO John Ternus has directed software engineering chief Craig Federighi to accelerate the company's artificial intelligence roadmap, aiming to evolve Siri from a request-based assistant into a proactive, agentic system. The directive, issued during a closed-door meeting in recent weeks, seeks to move the technology beyond its current capabilities to better compete with emerging AI agents.

While Apple recently introduced a personalized version of Siri in iOS 27, the system currently functions primarily through user-initiated requests. The company's goal is to develop a system capable of managing multi-step tasks and pursuing objectives autonomously in the background, similar to how competitors like OpenAI's Dots and Meta's Muse operate.

According to reporting by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is adjusting its development cycle for the upcoming iOS 28 to provide engineers with more time for exploration and coding. While no official launch date has been set, industry observers suggest that a more advanced, agentic version of Siri could potentially debut as early as 2027.

The push reflects internal pressure to address concerns regarding the pace of Apple's AI development. During a recent earnings call, Ternus noted that while the current architecture is built on a modern orchestrator-driven foundation, there is significant room to expand its functionality to meet the evolving demands of the AI landscape.