One of the biggest launches in Apple's history is supposed to come next yearand it's got nothing to do with hardware.
The company has promised investors that it will be launching the next generation of Siriits artificial intelligence voice assistant. There's a lot riding on the launch of a "more personal Siri" for Applewhich has so far been absent from the tech industry's AI race that kicked off when OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022.
Apple doesn't usually tell the public its product road mapbut in Siri's casethe iPhone maker made an exception. The company was supposed to launch the new AI assistant in 2025. But in MarchApple delayed the upgradeeven after running ads for the featureto sometime in "the coming year."
As consumers become increasingly accustomed to holding free-flowing conversations with the likes of ChatGPTAnthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini chatbotsthe pressure is on Apple to keep up.
CEO Tim Cook told investors in October that Apple has been making good progress on Siriand that's "raised the bar meaningfully about what to expect," said Deepwater Asset Management's Gene Munster.
"They basically said that this yeardon't bother us about AIand we'll blow you away by what we show next year," Munster said.
Apple stock is up 12% so far in 2025with much of those gains coming in recent monthsas the company's iPhone 17 launch in September impressed investors. But Android maker Google is at the center of the AI boom with its own models and tensor processing AI chipsand its stock has surged more than 60% this year.
Throughout 2025AI was everywhere in Silicon Valley — except in Cupertino.
OpenAI released Sora 2a video-generating app that briefly topped the Apple App Store charts. Anthropic released several new Claude models. Amazon revamped its Alexa AI assistant. Microsoft released software in November that lets companies manage "AI agents," a term for AI programs that can work autonomously for hours at a time. Even Metawhich has faced its own shifting AI strategymade moves to prepare for the release of its next frontier modelcodenamed AvocadoCNBC reported last week.
And early in the yearNvidia took the crown as the most-valuable tech company from Apple. That was driven by the insatiable demand for Nvidia's graphics processing units. During the yearthe chipmaker started shipping a type of AI computer called the Grace Blackwell NVL72 that pairs 72 separate AI GPUs together and costs an estimated $3 million.
Applemeanwhilehasn't had a major AI launch since 2024when it announced Apple Intelligence. The software suite included image generatorstext rewritersthe ability to summarize push notifications and an integration with ChatGPT.
AI barely mentioned
But so farconsumer response to Apple Intelligence has been mixed.
While the company's improved AI-powered notification filtering and photo-editing features have been praisedother AI features faced issues. For exampleApple briefly turned off an AI feature that rewrote push notifications from news apps inaccurately (it's since been turned back on by default).
The most notable of the Apple Intelligence features were the upgrades to Siribut they were delayed in the springwith the company saying development would take longer than first thought. Greg JoswiakApple's worldwide marketing chiefsaid in a June interview with The Wall Street Journal that the company "didn't want to disappoint customers."
At the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in JuneAI was barely mentioned.
Apple did say that its new chips had better AI performanceand it debuted a number of machine learning featuressuch as AirPod live translations and intelligent call screening. Developers were also invited to tap into Apple's foundation models. But the company didn't announce anything on the scale of the chatbots and generative AI products that its peers have released.
Closing the yearApple has shaken up its AI leadership rankssignaling where the company stands when it comes to implementing a strategy to keep pace with rivals' ground-breaking technology.
In early DecemberApple said John Giannandreathe company's machine learning and AI strategy chiefwould retire in 2026. Many of his responsibilities will be split among chief operating officer Sabih Khanservices chief Eddy Cue and new hire Amar Subramanyawho previously worked at Google and Microsoft. Software chief Craig Federighi also gained expanded oversight over AIwith Subramanya reporting to himApple said.
The hiring of Subramanyawho was the head of engineering for Google Gemini before briefly joining Microsoft in an AI executive roleis particularly notable. The iPhone maker doesn't tend to publicly discuss its engineering talentespecially new hires that don't report directly to Cook.
The public announcement of a vice president hire like Subramanya shows how important it is for Apple to prove to investors and the public that it's willing to shake up its AI leadership.
It's become clear that Apple is playing a different game than its peerswhich have taken a cloud-based approach to AI that requires spending heavily on infrastructure.
GoogleMicrosoftMeta and Amazon committed a collective $380 billion this year on capital expendituresmuch of it on Nvidia-based data centers to create and serve the most advanced AI models.
Apple also increased its capital expendituresbut on a much smaller scale. Apple spent $12.71 billion on capital expenditures in the year ended in Septemberup 35% on an annual basisbut less than the company spent in 2018. Rather than using Nvidia chips in servers for Apple Intelligencethe iPhone maker says it uses chips that it originally designed for its computers because of user privacy reasons.
A key question for Apple is whether it will seek a partner to power the new Siri.
The improvements to the upgraded Siri are expected to include the ability for the voice assistant to do things like make a reservation intelligently based on a user's travel plans and personal relationships.
Currentlywhen Siri is presented with complicated queriesthe AI offers to have ChatGPT answer the question. At a panel shortly after the Apple Intelligence launch last yearcompany executives said that there was a chance other foundation modelsincluding Google's Geminicould be built into the service. The latest version of Google's modelGemini 3was released in November to positive reviews.
Cook has also said that Apple is open to making big acquisitionswhich have been exceedingly rare to date. The valuations of AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic have reached levels that make them almost impossible to acquireeven for a company with Apple's cash flow.
OpenAI reached a $500 billion valuation in an October share saleand Anthropic was valued at $350 billion in November. By comparisonApple's largest acquisition of all time is its 2014 purchase of Beats Electronics for $3 billion.
Apple's lack of spending has led some investors to fret about the company's AI strategyputting more pressure on the Siri upgrade.
"Investors have already gotten enough gray hairs waiting for Apple to come out with their AI strategy," said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. "It's time to come out and show the world what the strategy is."
Time is on Apple's side
Even as some investors worry that Apple has fallen behind in AIthe company's most important business is doing better than ever.
The iPhone 17 is a hitand the company has projected 10% revenue growth in its holiday quarter. Apple will likely be the top smartphone vendor in terms of units shipped in 2025 as well as next yearbesting Samsungaccording to Counterpoint Research.
Apple's lackluster AI hasn't hurt iPhone sales yetsaid Counterpoint analyst Yang Wangwho added that new AI features from other tech companies have yet to drastically change the day-to-day experience of using a smartphone.
"We don't think it's a major threat to Apple yetjust because the competition hasn't really blown it out of the water," Wang said.
Analysts and consumers may not see the threat to Applebut company executives do. While testifying in a May trialApple's Cue said AI technology is moving fast enough that users may not need an iPhone in a decade.
That's because new hardware devices can use AI to create new user interfaces and features that aren't possible with smartphones. Some early AI gadgets have already hit the market.
The Ray-Ban Meta glasses can use AI to identify objects in a user's range of viewand Meta announced this month that it bought a startup called Limitless. That company's AI pendant can record conversations and generate summaries for them. A purchase price wasn't disclosed.
But the biggest threat to Apple may be from its current AI partner.
Earlier this yearOpenAI bought ioformer Apple design guru Jony Ive's AI devices startupfor $6.4 billionand now Ive is helping the AI lab build next-generation consumer devices. Ivewho left Apple in 2019is still widely seen as one of the driving forces behind the hardware maker's biggest hitsincluding the iPhone and the iPad.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in November that the company had "finally" finished its first device prototypes. Neither he nor Ive said what the devices arejust that they're targeting a calmer "vibe" with their hardware than a smartphone.
Earlier this monthAltman told journalists that he believes OpenAI's real rival isn't Googlebut Apple. He said smartphones are not well-suited for AI companions or other use cases, according to the Wall Street Journal.
But Apple still has time to ready its counter. Ive said in November that it would be about two years before he expects the OpenAI devices to be revealed to the public.
"They have more time than people realize to figure this out," Munster said. "But as far as the near-termthey've got to deliver a 10 out of 10 when this new Siri comes out."