Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Apple employees are internally sounding the alarm on the state of the more personalized and integrated Siri announced as part of Apple Intelligence last year.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote Sunday in his Power On newsletter that people testing the features inside the company are once again “concerned” about the performance. He did not elaborate on the state of the software or any specific shortcomings.
These concerns come as several AI executives at the company make an exit. Gurman reported Wednesday that the company’s AI-driven web search project lead Ke Yang jumped ship for Meta, following several former colleagues.
Alongside this series of blows to the company’s AI team, concerns linger over the fate of senior vice president of AI John Giannandrea amid a series of challenges in his tumultuous term at the company. He has already seen his duties gradually reduced this year.
Company officials previously planned to launch the features as part of iOS 18.4. The promised features of the suite include personal context, on-screen awareness and the overhauled app intents system. The initial Apple Intelligence launch with iOS 18.1 only included Type to Siri, product knowledge and better language understanding.
Executives delayed the final features by a year, and Gurman reported they internally targeted a release with iOS 26.4. Gurman predicts more members of the AI team will depart if the launch is bungled.
The delay of the app intents system specifically has major implications for Apple’s hardware pipeline. The upcoming smart home tablet, dubbed the ‘HomePad’ by many in the Apple community, reportedly relies heavily on the system and is slated for a spring release close to iOS 26.4. The system could also be critical for the company’s line of robotic products in development–one of the projects previously led by Giannandrea before his reallocation.
The company has a few more months before the planned launch to get the features up to par. It is unclear if they intend to delay the features again.
