Most people see Siri as Apple’s AI weakness.
I’m one of them.
I’ve written before about how I usually use ChatGPT or Claude instead of Siri, which I find is good for timers, but not so much for thinking.
But now I’m starting to wonder if Siri could become one of Apple’s biggest advantages. And it ties into my thesis that this is the year AI goes from answering questions to doing things for you.
Because the latest reporting suggests that Apple might be about to pull off something much bigger than a simple upgrade of its voice assistant.
It could be turning its operating system into a broker of intelligence, with Siri acting as the concierge.
That single move could instantly turn Apple into a contender in the AI race.
But not in the way you might expect.
Siri Reborn
According to Bloomberg, Apple is preparing a major Siri redesign for iOS 27 that could open the assistant to rival AI services such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. It’s also testing a version of Siri that can handle multiple commands in a single request.
At first blush, this might sound like Apple is simply trying to make Siri less embarrassing.
But I think there’s a bigger story here.
You see, I believe Apple might also be trying to turn Siri into the front door for artificial intelligence on the iPhone.
Here’s what I mean.
Using AI today can involve juggling multiple apps. You might open one model to research something, another for writing and maybe a third model to help you code.
In other words, you have to decide which tool to use and how you’re going to manage the workflow.
But a concierge works the other way around.
You tell your iPhone what you want accomplished, and Siri will decide what intelligence sits behind the answer. Maybe one model will handle reasoning while another searches for information and yet another executes a task.
But to you, it all feels like one experience.
That’s where I think Siri could be headed.
And this approach makes sense because Apple certainly doesn’t seem to be trying to outbuild its peers.
The model behind Apple Intelligence reportedly has about 3 billion parameters. That might sound big, but it’s much smaller than the massive models being built by OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
Instead of going bigger, Apple has focused on weaving AI into its own ecosystem.
Many Apple Intelligence features run right on your device. More demanding tasks can run through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. And Apple has already shown that it’s open to partnerships by bringing ChatGPT into Siri rather than forcing its own model to do everything.
That tells me Apple isn’t trying to beat its competitors by building the biggest AI brain.
Yet Apple has the distinct advantage of more than 2 billion active devices in use and a services business that generates over $100 billion a year, with margins far higher than its hardware business.
Those numbers point to the massive opportunity here.
Because if Apple can control where AI requests begin, it will be able to profit from intelligence the same way it already profits from its App Store.
By owning the road everyone drives on.
When Apple launched the App Store, most people saw it as a way to put software on the iPhone. But the real breakthrough was how Apple took a cut of everything.
Apple built a toll road on top of mobile computing, and that toll road became one of the most profitable businesses in modern tech. In fact, Apple’s app ecosystem helped generate about $1.3 trillion in sales in 2024.
Image: appleinsider.com
And AI could be a similar opportunity for Apple.
If Siri becomes the one deciding which AI handles your request, the AI companies will have to compete for access to Apple’s ecosystem. That would put Apple in position to profit no matter which one comes out on top.
And there are already hints that this is happening.
Reports say generative AI apps produced roughly $900 million in App Store fees last year.
That means Apple is already making money from AI traffic before this new opportunity unfolds.
And what comes next could make that $900 million look like chump change.
Here’s My Take
Apple has a history of finding where the most value in a new technology will be created and putting itself in the middle of it.
It did that with the Mac by making personal computing easier to use.
It did it again with the iPhone by redefining the smartphone.
And the App Store let Apple profit from the entire ecosystem built on top of both.
Now, Apple has its sights set on artificial intelligence.
By turning Siri into an AI concierge — where you state a goal and the system figures out how to get it done — Apple could change what an operating system does. Instead of a place where you open apps, it could become a place where you simply ask for what you want done.
This move would allow Apple to put itself in the middle of the next big wave in computing.
And history has proven that’s a very profitable place to be
That’s why I think this story is bigger than a smarter Siri. I see it as a bet that the next platform won’t be defined by apps.
It’ll be defined by whoever helps you get things done the most efficiently.
Regards,
Ian King
Chief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing
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