kay, Apple, let's try this again.
The company had its big AI reveal two years ago at WWDC 2024, but it got too far over its skis. It announced a slew of AI products and features that were delayed, never came to market, or were disappointing.
On Monday, at the keynote for WWDC 2026, we're going to hear Apple's new vision for integrating AI into the iPhone and the rest of the Apple ecosystem. This time we expect to hear about features that are much more fully baked, including the long-awaited transformation of Siri.
Apple's AI reboot comes almost a year after CEO Tim Cook rallied the company around playing a key role in the AI revolution, calling it "as big or bigger" as the internet and smartphones. "Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is ours to grab. We will make the investment to do it," Cook told Apple employees at an all-hands meeting in August 2025, according to Bloomberg sources.
With Apple's AI trajectory on the line, here are the biggest questions to track at WWDC:
Can Siri meet heightened expectations? Siri needs to become nearly as capable as ChatGPT and Claude and it needs to emerge as a standalone app that you can chat with. Turning Siri into an app that's highly usable and easy to navigate is Apple's bread and butter, and it's the best way for Apple to distinguish itself. But that will only be possible if Siri works as well as the leading chatbots on the market.Apple has enlisted Google Geminito power theApple Foundation Modelsthat run Siri. Let's see if Siri merely catches up to what everyone else is doing or if it launches any truly unique features.Where do Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic fit in? By not making its own frontier models, Apple has the opportunity to play a role similar to Perplexity where it can use models from multiple labs and orchestrate which model is the best to use based on the user's question or task. We already know Apple is partnering with Google and OpenAI, the big question is whether Anthropic models will join the party. Based onthis tweet, it looks likely. Will they all have equal footing inside the new Siri? Let's see how that plays out.How will Apple integrate agents? Apple catching up on chatbots is one thing, but the AI industry is rapidly moving away from chatbots and embracing AI agents as the next stage of AI.The Information reportedthat Apple will launch an AI agent marketplace on the App Store to allow companies and developers to launch agents that strictly adhere to Apple's privacy and security policies. That could be a win.Will there be a hardware surprise? There is no hardware currently rumored to launch at this year's WWDC, where Apple typically launches at least one new device, usually a Mac. However, we do occasinally get surprised at WWDC by hardware that flew under the radar. If that were to happen this year, the best candidates would be a new smart speaker running the overhauled Siri, a teaser for Apple smart glasses coming next year, or new Mac mini and Mac Studio hardware powered by the M5 chip. Still, all of these look like longshots.
Let's also remember that no matter what happens with Siri, Apple is still winning big in AI with Apple silicon, as I recently detailed in an excluisive interview with Apple.
Our Deeper View #
It's easy to get stuck on Apple falling behind in the chatbot race. After all, it's been two years since the promise of a revamped Siri running on AI has failed to materialize. And there were many years before that when Siri languished in a sea of unfulfilled expectations. Siri needs to deliver this time, and with all the attention Apple has dedicated to the Siri upgrade over the past year I think we can reasonably expect that the AI assistant will catch up on basic features. The bigger question is if Apple simply tries to deliver basic features and win on interface and integration, or if it tries to push the boundaries and deliver truly unique AI features. The Deep View's Sabrina Ortiz and I will be on the ground at WWDC 2026 to find out. You can follow my analysis of everything announced in real-time on X/Twitter at x.com/jasonhiner.