The wait for Apple’s new Siri has stretched on, but survey data shows that everyday use of voice assistants has barely shifted in years. Most people continue to rely on Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant for the same basic tasks they did back in 2018. Weather checks, music playback, web searches, alarms, and hands-free calls dominate usage, according to new polling. Even as companies tout generative AI upgrades, actual behavior suggests the core habits of users remain unchanged.
Same habits, different year
Apple promised major upgrades to Siri at WWDC 2024, showcasing features it said would make the assistant far more capable. The company later pulled back, deleting an iPhone 16 advertisement and walking back timelines after facing accusations of false advertising. That fueled doubts over whether the improved Siri would ever arrive. Apple has maintained that the promised functions will eventually launch, along with additional capabilities.
But the wait may not matter much. A YouGov survey published in Sherwood News shows that the vast majority of voice assistant activity still centers on five tasks: checking the weather (59 percent), playing music (51 percent), searching the web for quick answers (47 percent), setting alarms or timers (40 percent), and making hands-free calls (39 percent). These numbers closely mirror survey data from 2018, suggesting little has changed in how people actually use the technology.
Promises vs. frustrations
While some users say they are satisfied with these limited functions, frustrations remain. About 27 percent reported that assistants often fail to understand their requests, 12 percent cited accuracy problems, and 10 percent said the tools are not as smart as they expected. That gap between expectations and reality helps explain why broader adoption has stalled.
Google, Amazon, and Apple have all announced that their assistants will use more advanced generative AI technology. But according to the Sherwood News report, the companies are still struggling to deliver on those promises. As a result, the core functions remain largely the same, and users continue to treat voice assistants as basic convenience tools rather than essential daily companions.
However, a malicious actor has already demonstrated that Siri can be used to execute commands efficiently to attack a target creating a criminal AI that cannot yet tell the difference between assisting for good vs enabling evil?