Apple's WWDC 2026 keynote (its annual developer conference) introduced a renamed Siri AI with a dedicated app, new voices, and system wide hooks, but the new assistant will only reach iPhone 16 and newer (plus select iPhone 15 Pros) when iOS 27 ships this fall.
Apple first promised a dramatically smarter Siri in 2024. Two years and a $250 million shareholder settlement later, the company used its WWDC 2026 keynote to unveil a renamed "Siri AI" with its own dedicated app, new voices, and deeper hooks across the operating system, the most concrete AI delivery Apple has produced since the original Apple Intelligence reveal. The catch, according to CNET's coverage of the keynote, is that the new assistant will still be labeled beta when it ships.
The timing matters. Apple announced its first wave of Apple Intelligence features in mid-2024, then spent two years missing internal targets for the conversational Siri overhaul that was supposed to anchor the rollout. A $250 million settlement related to that delay was reached last month, a fact that frames the WWDC 2026 announcements less as a clean product reveal and more as a delivery against an overdue promise, per CNET's Katelyn Chedraoui.
What Apple says users can actually do, when the beta arrives, is centered on a Siri that has its own app icon, customizable voices, and tighter integration with system-level actions. CNET described the package as the "largest AI moment" of the keynote and noted the two-year anniversary of the original Apple Intelligence announcement. Apple is positioning the overhaul as the fulfillment of features users have been waiting on, framing it as a delivery milestone rather than a fresh research breakthrough.
The credibility context is unavoidable. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft all shipped conversational AI assistants years before Apple's first Apple Intelligence reveal. Apple was not first to the category, and the WWDC 2026 announcements do not change that ranking. What they do, finally, is move Apple from a roadmap story to a shipping product story, at least for users on supported hardware.
That hardware floor is itself a constraint. The new Siri AI features will roll out with iOS 27 this fall, and Apple is gating them to iPhone 16 and newer, with support for select iPhone 15 Pro models. Anyone on an older device will get the standard iOS 27 release but not the AI-enabled Siri. The beta label also means Apple has not committed to a firm general-availability date beyond "later this year," according to CNET's account of the keynote.
There is also a leadership framing to flag. CNET's piece refers to Tim Cook as "outgoing CEO," a characterization that has not been independently confirmed against primary Apple sources in the materials available here, and it should be read as CNET's framing rather than as an established fact. Whether the transition is real or speculative, the framing is a useful reminder that secondary outlets can race ahead of confirmed reporting on executive changes at major companies.
The substance for readers is straightforward. If you own an iPhone 16 or a supported iPhone 15 Pro, you will get a beta version of a renamed Siri AI this fall that Apple says can do more, and you can judge for yourself whether two years of waiting and a nine-figure settlement bought you an upgrade or a catch-up feature. If you do not, the announcement is mostly a marker of where Apple's AI roadmap finally stands, and where it still does not.