CUPERTINO, Calif.: Apple has unveiled Siri AI at WWDC 2026, a completely rebuilt version of its voice assistant powered by Google’s Gemini foundation models. The announcement marks a major step forward for Apple after years of falling behind rival AI assistants.
CEO Tim Cook made the announcement at his final keynote on June 8 at Apple Park. Cook is set to step down as CEO on September 1, with Senior VP John Ternus taking over the role after the transition.
The rebuilt Siri AI is being seen as Apple’s most significant effort yet to close the gap with competitors like ChatGPT and Google Assistant, bringing a smarter and more capable voice assistant to Apple devices.
The new assistant runs across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro through a dedicated app. Past conversations sync privately through iCloud across all paired Apple devices. Siri AI handles personal context, multi-step commands, and conversational follow-ups for the first time.
The system uses Apple Foundation Models on-device and Apple Foundation Models Cloud for harder tasks. The cloud tier runs Gemini Frontier-quality models on Nvidia GPUs inside Google data centers. Apple’s Private Cloud Compute architecture handles the data routing without storing personal queries.
Reports peg the Google partnership at roughly $1 billion per year for model access. Apple has not confirmed the exact financial terms publicly at this stage. The arrangement marks a clear philosophical shift for a company built on first-party silicon.
Xcode 27 brings coding agents from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI directly into developer workflows. iOS 27 lets users select a third-party AI as their default assistant through Extensions. SynthID watermarking from Google now signals AI-generated images created across iOS 27.
“We’re excited to introduce a dramatically more capable and conversational assistant designed to help users find information and get things done throughout the day,” says Apple software chief Craig Federighi.
iOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, and the broader Apple Intelligence rebuild ship in fall 2026. Developer betas land this week, with public betas arriving in July.
The launch sets up Ternus to inherit Apple at a critical AI inflection point.
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