Summary: Apple’s voice assistant, Siri, has been the butt of jokes in tech circles for years. Despite years of iteration and updated visuals announced at WWDC 2024, it continues to fall short of user expectations. The delays in launching context-aware features—and the underlying hesitation to pivot away from Siri’s flawed foundation—raise big questions. Where does Apple go from here? Should they start over? Should they quietly retire Siri the way Google froze out Assistant in favor of Gemini?
Voice Assistants: What Went Wrong
Once pitched as the future of computing, voice assistants like Siri and Google Assistant went stale. They were marketed as intelligent helpers but were mostly glorified timers and music players. Siri, in particular, became synonymous with failed expectations. While Apple iterated on its graphic UI and chip design for over a decade, Siri stood still—with a limited understanding of context, language, and user preferences.
The big issue wasn’t a lack of resources—Apple has plenty. It was structural: Siri was built before large language models (LLMs) matured. Early on, the focus was narrow. The commands were rigid. The data integration was superficial. And the learning wasn’t adaptive. Google's Assistant fell into the same trap, which is why Google pulled the plug and introduced Gemini—a fresh start built from scratch with LLMs in mind.
WWDC 2024: All Style, No Substance?
At WWDC 2024, Apple made noise about Siri getting smarter, sleeker, and linked to ChatGPT. That sounded promising at first. But the big reveal sidestepped the real problem. The most valuable feature—understanding personal context from email, messages, and your calendar—was reportedly delayed indefinitely. It’s the digital equivalent of announcing a gourmet restaurant and then saying the kitchen isn’t ready.
Without this contextual awareness, Siri stays stuck as a quirky shortcut tool, not a modern AI. Voice isn’t a gimmick anymore; users want devices that act with nuance, carry memory, and understand what matters. And most importantly—they want to feel that the assistant they’re talking to can actually assist.
Why Users Don’t Trust Siri
Siri’s reputation isn't just bad—it’s damaged. People don’t just question its intelligence; they expect it to fail. That’s the result of a decade of unmet promises. If customers routinely say “Siri is dumb” and avoid using it entirely, that’s not just branding trouble—it’s product rejection at scale.
And unlike Google or Amazon, which built services around search and shopping respectively, Apple’s core strength is its ecosystem. But Siri never connected those dots with intelligence. It never translated into a daily habit. Why? Because it didn’t earn trust through consistent, reliable performance. Would you keep talking to someone who never really listens?
Could Apple Kill Siri Like Google Killed Assistant?
With Google folding its Assistant into a new product—Gemini—it made a clear statement: the old AI model didn’t work. Gemini isn’t simply a rebrand. It’s a different beast. It reads emails, parses documents, understands images, and builds memory as it goes. Google admitted the first generation failed to reach true “assistant” capability—and did something about it. That’s a real flex in the tech world: institutional humility and strategic reinvention.
Apple, famously, does not kill products easily. Loyalty to the name ‘Siri’ could become a liability if the new system is still assumed to be broken at the foundation. If they’re unwilling to start clean, they might be tying their AI evolution to yesterday’s failures. Would a fresh name give them the reset they need?
The Real Issue: Interface Shift
Switching from Siri to a next-gen assistant is more than a name change. It requires a new way for users to think. Old assistants were command-driven: “Set a timer,” “What’s the weather?” LLM-based assistants, like Gemini or ChatGPT, are conversational. They thrive on back-and-forth, ambiguity, and inference.
That change is huge. It’s like moving from DOS prompt to Mac OS X. It’s not about doing new things—it’s about doing the same things better, faster, and more intuitively. That shift can be hard, especially for users who gave up on Siri years ago. How do you win back people who already made up their minds?
What Should Apple Do?
Apple faces a strategic fork. They can:
- Double down on Siri, give it deeper integration over time, but risk being seen as reactive.
- Launch an entirely new assistant, framed around LLMs and Apple’s privacy-first positioning, presenting it as a clean departure from the past.
Each option demands clear framing. A rebranded assistant must clearly explain how it solves people’s old Siri frustrations. It must acknowledge failure (without rubbing salt in the wound), show how the new assistant is different, and guide users on how to use it effectively. That takes marketing muscle and humility—a tough combo for Apple’s culture.
Saying Goodbye to Siri: Necessary or Naive?
Killing legacy products is risky. But here, clinging to a name with deep consumer skepticism might be riskier. Users expect intelligence from their devices now—not just fast processors or new form factors, but true adaptive support across tasks, platforms, and personal data. Siri simply isn’t that—and may never be.
That said, how does Apple help millions of users cross the chasm from simple voice commands to real collaborative AI? How do you teach users they can now ask “Help me plan my week,” instead of just “What’s on my calendar?” That’s what makes this challenge interesting. It’s not just a tech problem—it’s a teaching problem.
Final Thought: Start Over, or Stay Stuck?
At this point, it’s not just about fixing Siri’s flaws. It’s about whether Apple is willing to reestablish credibility by admitting, like Google did, that the old model failed. Renaming the product won’t mean much unless it comes with clarity, demonstration, and above all—trust earned through function.
What do users value more—familiarity, or performance? What would you trust more: a Siri 2.0 badge, or a completely new assistant engineered without legacy baggage?
Apple’s answer to that question will reveal whether it’s still willing to lead, or content to adapt behind others.
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Featured Image courtesy of Unsplash and Masjid Arrahman (MAX5ElEPDak)