Apple opened its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8 at Apple Park with the announcement it most needed to make: a ground-up rebuild of Siri, this time powered by Google’s Gemini. The keynote, which kicks off a developer conference running through June 12, was framed around an artificial intelligence strategy that has spent two years misfiring, and it arrived with unusual stakes for a company accustomed to setting the pace rather than chasing it.
The centerpiece is a Siri rebuilt on a custom 1.2-trillion-parameter Gemini model licensed from Google under a multi-year arrangement reported to be worth roughly $1 billion a year. Rather than a single cloud brain, the new assistant uses a three-tier routing system: simple tasks stay on the device using Apple’s own models, moderately complex requests go to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers, and the heaviest reasoning routes to Google Cloud running on Nvidia’s Blackwell B200 GPUs. At each handoff, Apple says it anonymizes and tokenizes queries so that neither its own staff nor Google can tie a request to an individual user, an attempt to graft a third-party model onto the privacy positioning that has long anchored the company’s brand.
What the New Siri Actually Does
For users, the most visible change is a new Siri app built around conversation. The assistant supports both text and voice, opening with an “Ask Siri” bar and a paperclip icon for attaching images, PDFs, and documents, the kind of chatbot interaction that rivals normalized while Apple stalled. The company also showed the ability to perform multiple actions from a single prompt and customizable Siri voice settings for pace and expressivity.
iOS 27 carries the rest of the AI story. In a notable concession to user choice, Apple will let people select a third-party AI model as their default assistant, opening the door for those who prefer ChatGPT or another service. The operating system also brings generative editing tools to the Photos app, while the broader software slate, spanning iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS 27, leans toward stability and refinement over dramatic redesign. Developer betas follow the keynote, with public betas expected in July and full releases in the fall.
Apple also used the stage to preview homeOS, a new operating system for an upcoming smart home hub, signaling that the Gemini-powered assistant is meant to anchor a next wave of hardware rather than live solely on the iPhone.
The Backdrop the Company Would Rather Forget
The reset cannot be separated from the failure that preceded it. Cook first promised a context-aware, personally intelligent Siri at WWDC 2024, then failed to ship those features for nearly two years. The gap drew a class-action lawsuit alleging that Apple’s marketing for the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 16 lineup had advertised capabilities that were not functional at purchase. Apple, which denied wrongdoing, reached a $250 million settlement that won preliminary court approval in May. The Gemini-powered Siri unveiled this week is, in effect, the first real delivery of what those ads promised, which raises the bar for whether it performs as shown when it reaches the public.
A Keynote That Marks a Handover
The event carried a second layer of significance. This was Tim Cook’s final WWDC keynote as chief executive. Apple announced in April that hardware engineering chief John Ternus will become CEO on September 1, with Cook moving to executive chairman. For a leader whose tenure will be remembered for record revenue and operational mastery, the unresolved AI question has been the conspicuous blemish, and the timing gives the reset the feel of a legacy item Cook wanted settled before handing over the company.
The Business Question Underneath
For investors, the announcements land against a specific anxiety: whether a credible AI story can revive a slowing iPhone upgrade cycle. Apple’s services business has been the steadier engine, reaching record revenue in its most recent quarter, but the device business still depends on giving customers a reason to upgrade. A Siri that finally works as advertised is the clearest such reason Apple has offered in years.
The strategic irony is hard to miss. A company that built its identity on controlling the full stack is now leasing the intelligence at the heart of its flagship assistant from a direct competitor, the same Google whose search deal already underpins much of Apple’s services income. Whether that dependence reads as pragmatism or vulnerability will depend on execution. Apple has promised a transformed Siri before. This time the model is bigger, the partner is named, and the public will be able to judge the result within months rather than take it on faith.
