Apple details new Siri and AI upgrades

At its WWDC 2026 keynote on June 8, Apple introduced a slate of artificial-intelligence features framed around everyday use and a stated focus on user privacy. The announcements centered on a redesigned Siri experience, new Apple Intelligence capabilities, and enhancements to camera and photo software. Company presenters positioned the software update as broadly compatible, highlighting support for devices from the iPhone 11 onward.

Apple said the upcoming software will also deliver performance gains across common tasks. The company cited examples such as photos appearing 70% faster and AirDrop transfers completing 80% faster. These improvements were presented alongside the AI additions as part of a broader refresh of the user experience.

The company detailed a major overhaul of Siri, describing the assistant as more conversational and better at understanding personal context and multi-step interactions. Apple demonstrated Siri extracting directions to a landmark shown inside an Instagram post to illustrate how the assistant can interpret on-screen content and follow through with practical actions.

Apple said the new Siri experience will be delivered both as a standalone Siri app and as an assistant integrated across existing apps. Parts of Siri’s functionality will rely on Google’s Gemini technology, according to the company. The combination of a dedicated app and background integration is intended to make the assistant accessible in more situations while remaining present within the existing interface.

Alongside the Siri changes, Apple announced a second version of its Apple Foundation Models, referred to as AFM v2. The company said this model can process speech and interpret both text and images, enabling what it described as multimodal understanding across its software.

Presenters linked AFM v2 to broader Apple Intelligence capabilities, though they did not detail specific model sizes or architectures. Instead, the emphasis was on the range of inputs the system can handle and how that underpins features such as more capable voice interactions and richer responses to mixed media content.

Throughout the keynote, Apple emphasized a privacy-centered approach for its AI rollout. The company stated that user data is used only to execute specific requests, aligning the new tools with its existing privacy messaging. It added that outside experts would be able to verify these practices, though it did not provide additional technical specifics in the presentation.

This stated privacy commitment applied across the new Siri experience, Apple Foundation Models, and the broader Apple Intelligence features. The company’s framing positioned privacy as a core element of how its AI systems are deployed, not just as an add-on to new capabilities.

Apple also announced Visual Intelligence enhancements spanning the Camera and Photos apps. A dedicated Visual Intelligence section will be added to the Camera app, where AI-driven tools can offer intelligent scene recommendations to help users capture images in different environments.

In the Photos app, Apple highlighted features such as automatic object removal and natural-language photo editing tools. Users will be able to describe desired edits in everyday language, with the system applying adjustments based on that description. These additions form part of the wider Apple Intelligence suite presented at the event.