Apple CEO John Ternus is pushing software chief Craig Federighi to build an agentic Siri that can finish tasks for you instead of waiting for each command. Siri AI in iOS 27 still works request by request, while ChatGPT Dots, Meta Muse and Grok can keep working on a goal between conversations.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports in his Power On newsletter that Ternus pressed Federighi on the issue in a closed-door meeting in recent weeks, frustrated that Apple is moving with less urgency on AI than its rivals. On Apple’s first earnings call under Ternus on November 2, Ternus told analysts that Siri AI is the assistant Apple always wanted to build and that its architecture leaves room to add agentic abilities over time.
An agentic Siri would keep working after you stop talking
ChatGPT Dots, Meta Muse and Grok can be handed an ongoing job. They remember your projects and preferences, watch connected sources for changes, bring up information without being asked and decide when to pause or resume work. Siri AI in iOS 27.3 handles bigger requests than before, but you still start every step yourself.
The Siri AI that shipped with iOS 27 on September 14 can answer questions, write emails and texts, set reminders and pull information from the web. Siri AI also reads what is on your screen and the private data on your device, so you can ask it to collect trip details from your messages and send them in an email.
Apple rebuilt the engine around AI models based on technology it licenses from Google. Apple first showed the assistant in 2024, and it reached iPhones after a delay of about two years.
The iOS 27.3 beta adds Siri AI actions in 15 Apple apps, and the public release is planned for December. App makers can build for Siri AI through the Siri AI developer preview now, but Apple does not open App Store submissions until the spring. Third-party support is expected to ship in iOS 27.5 or iOS 27.6, before WWDC next June.
Apple has no computer use tool to run your iPhone or Mac
ChatGPT and Claude both offer Computer Use, which reads what is on a screen, moves a cursor, clicks buttons and types into apps. Apple has nothing like it for iPhone, iPad or Mac, even though it controls the operating systems that hundreds of millions of people use every day.
The Passwords feature Apple announced at WWDC 2026 is the closest thing it has shown to an agent so far. The feature would find weak or compromised passwords, change them on each website and save the new ones in the Passwords app. Apple pulled the feature from the iOS 27 betas and still labels it as coming in a future software update, which makes it one of three missing iOS 27 features.
Ternus said on the earnings call that Apple wants users to be aware of what they are giving an agent access to. Leaving computer use to rivals puts a third-party company in control of your device, which raises security and privacy concerns.
Apple’s advantage is that it owns the devices, operating systems and chips people use today, but OpenAI and other AI companies are working on their own hardware, and Meta has already announced the Muse Charm keychain device for its Muse agent.
Federighi plans in 12 to 18 month stretches while Apple hardware plans for years
Federighi plans software work over 12 to 18 months, while Apple’s hardware teams work from multiyear road maps. That gap has contributed to delays and less ambitious first versions of devices, and Ternus needs to bridge it as Apple develops hardware and AI software together.
Federighi has a reputation as an AI skeptic because of his concerns about privacy, security and the effect on jobs. He took over the Siri effort last year after Apple removed John Giannandrea as AI chief, and he delivered a working Siri AI in a relatively short time. Some software engineers and designers say his hands-on style, and the way he argues hard against proposals he disagrees with, leaves them little say in where products go.
Apple reportedly wants to move in the agent direction, and Siri could act more like an agent as early as next year. Until then, the Siri AI features you can use are the ones in iOS 27.3, which Apple plans to release in December.
