Apple is heading into its 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference without the one thing it needs most: a working, AI-upgraded Siri. The setback isn’t just a missed deadline—it’s a sharp reflection of Apple’s ongoing failure to keep up in the AI race, despite years of promises, high-profile hires, and billions spent.
Back in 2018, Apple made headlines by poaching John Giannandrea from Google, hoping his AI pedigree would reverse Siri’s fortunes. Internally, the hire signaled a push to centralize Apple’s fragmented AI efforts. But seven years later, the results are underwhelming. While competitors roll out sophisticated AI assistants powered by large language models, Apple’s AI features remain limited, delayed, or nonfunctional.
Promises vs. Reality at WWDC
At WWDC 2023, Apple announced “Apple Intelligence,” promising writing aids, notification summaries, custom emojis, and a rebuilt Siri. It sparked stock surges and marketing hype, especially around the iPhone 16, which was “built from the ground up” for AI. But most features arrived months late—and some, like the Siri overhaul, never arrived at all.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Internal testing by software chief Craig Federighi revealed that promised Siri features didn’t work reliably. Apple quietly shelved the launch, but continued to advertise the features. The decision has triggered class-action lawsuits and raised serious questions about the company’s integrity and competence in the AI space.
Behind the scenes, Apple’s AI challenges run deep. The company has far fewer AI specialists than its rivals and has invested less in the hardware needed to train powerful models. Leadership disagreements and a risk-averse culture have stymied innovation. Even Giannandrea, who once championed major AI moves, saw his teams stripped of Siri oversight earlier this year.
Apple’s traditional product strategy polished, tightly controlled, and released on predictable cycles, is clashing with the chaotic, fast-paced demands of AI development. This mismatch has already doomed projects like the Apple Car, and it threatens others in the pipeline, from AR glasses to smart wearables.
With a billion users and unmatched hardware integration, Apple still holds massive potential. But as rivals like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI race ahead, Apple risks falling behind in the next era of computing.
WWDC 2025 may bring UI tweaks and software refinements, but without a credible AI showing, we know one thing that is clear: Apple is in an AI crisis, and time is running out.