What to Expect From Apple’s AI, Siri and iOS 27 Launch at WWDC

Apple will unveil a new artificial intelligence strategy on Monday at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, aiming for redemption two years after its first AI rollout was plagued by subpar technology and delayed features.

The company will hold a keynote presentation to introduce an overhauled version of the Siri digital assistant and a slew of new AI capabilities, as well as operating system updates for Apple’s iPhone, iPad, Mac, smartwatch, TV set-top box and Vision Pro headset. In line with last year’s naming change, the new software will be called iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, tvOS 27, watchOS 27 and visionOS 27.

Unlike 2025’s updates, which ushered in the Liquid Glass interface, the latest operating systems will be less focused on major design changes. Instead, Apple is seeking to make the software more reliable and responsive — with a longer battery life and faster performance — in addition to weaving in more AI features. That makes this year’s set of upgrades reminiscent of previous releases aimed at improving quality, such as Mac OS X Snow Leopard in 2009 and iOS 12 in 2018.

Apple also is developing more features for business users and customers in emerging markets, aiming to make inroads in places like India, Indonesia, Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia. The new version of the iPhone’s software will include under-the-hood changes as well that support the interface of a foldable iPhone coming later this year.

As part of the artificial intelligence improvements, developers will be able to more easily integrate AI into their apps using a new system called CoreAI. And makers of artificial intelligence agents will be able to tap into Siri and Apple’s in-house AI apps and offerings.

The company will release the new technology to consumers this fall, around the same time that upgraded iPhones and watches go on sale. Of course, some features could ultimately change or be delivered later, depending on Apple’s development work.

Bloomberg News will be covering the developer conference with a live blog on Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg Terminal. The event begins Monday at 10 a.m. local time from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.

The new Siri — a project known as Campo internally — sits at the center of Apple’s renewed AI strategy. The idea is to transform the assistant from a voice control system into a do-it-all AI companion, letting users handle tasks across iOS, iPadOS and macOS throughout their day. It also will be easier to control both in-house and outside apps using Siri.

To power this new assistant, Apple is relying on a Gemini model from Google, a company that is both a rival and a longtime partner. In addition to using Google’s underlying technology as part of a billion-dollar agreement, the company is hosting much of the new Siri on Google servers. Apple has long touted its ability to safeguard user data, so this arrangement may spark privacy questions.

A number of the new Siri features were actually first introduced in 2024 and then repeatedly delayed. That includes the ability to tap into personal data across a user’s device and Apple account. Siri also will be able to respond to the information on a person’s screen and navigate deeper within apps via voice control.

Customers will be able to do more advanced tasks, like telling Siri to write an email by giving it topics and information and asking it to pull the message together. The technology will be able to bring in data from the web and previous emails, calendar items, contacts and notes. For the first time, users can ask Siri when they’re available for appointments before scheduling something. The assistant will also be able to better identify overlapping events.

Apple has redesigned Siri for modern iPhone hardware, making it live inside the Dynamic Island, an on-screen element that the company first introduced in 2022. When a user says “Siri” or holds down on the power button, the assistant opens in the Dynamic Island with a new animation that replaces the glowing interface that currently sits around the edges of an iPhone’s screen. This mode, which will have a dark-toned interface, is best suited for voice-based queries and search.

Apple plans to let users swipe down from the top center of the iPhone to launch a new “Search or Ask” interface. (The Notification Center will now open with a swipe down from the top left.) The new command will open a revamped experience designed for getting things done or searching by typing — though voice control remains an option.

In the Search or Ask page, users can launch apps, start text messages, ask about the weather, add calendar appointments, sift through notes, trigger shortcuts within apps, or search the web using AI.

The Search or Ask panel also incorporates the Siri Suggestions interface found in current versions of iOS. That includes eight frequently used apps, functions like recent web searches or tasks like recording a voice memo. There’s also a section for showing things like the weather in the morning or evening.

When users ask for information, Siri — through the Dynamic Island — presents rich text cards and results for topics such as people, places and news. Similar cards also appear for weather forecasts and sports scores, as well as results pulled from a user’s own data, including notes, text messages, emails, contacts, calendar appointments and reminders.

In a major reversal from the company’s earlier strategy, Apple is also transforming Siri into a chatbot that can rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic PBC’s Claude, Alphabet Inc.’s Google Gemini and other popular AI platforms. That means the voice assistant, which Apple launched in 2011, is becoming truly conversational — well after the competition made a similar pivot.

Apple is also planning to open up Siri to outside chatbots beyond OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is already integrated into the software. In the Search or Ask view, users will be able to toggle between chatbots. Apple has tested this new approach with Claude and Gemini, in addition to ChatGPT.

The company is planning to allow users to throw multiple commands at Siri at once. The feature will let people combine requests — for example, asking Siri to check the weather, create a calendar appointment and send a message — all within a single prompt.

One of the biggest additions this year is a dedicated Siri app in iOS, iPadOS and macOS for holding conversations and continuing past chats. Users can jump into the Siri app by pulling down on a result from the assistant.

A main page of past chats that works in either a light mode or dark mode interface.

Users can view old conversations, either in a list or in a grid of tall rectangles. This interface shows a brief summary of those conversations so users know what to jump into, similar to the approach used by OpenAI’s app.

Conversations can sync across devices via iCloud.

The back-and-forth conversations look like a texting thread in the Messages app and there’s an Ask Siri prompt for writing new responses at the bottom. Users can also toggle to a voice input mode with a microphone button.

Like other chatbot apps, the Siri app supports inserting a photo (either from the camera or photo library) or attachments like files for analysis or use in conversations.

The app will have auto-deleting chats like Messages. People will be able to decide whether they want to keep old conversations around for 30 days, a year or forever. This will be a choice inside the Siri app section of the Settings app.

For the first time, Apple is launching an in-house web search product as part of Siri, competing with Perplexity AI Inc., a startup it once considered acquiring for this very purpose. That means Siri can answer practically any question with an in-house engine versus sending users to Google or ChatGPT. These responses include summaries, bulleted lists of information and large, rich images.

There’s an “Ask Siri” feature that allows users to send text and other context into the assistant from across iOS for follow-up analysis and answers about a topic. Users can access this by highlighting text, after which the option appears alongside buttons for copying, pasting and sharing. It’s similar to the “Ask ChatGPT” button in OpenAI’s software.

Apple is planning a “Write with Siri” feature to assist with composing text across its operating systems. This is accessible with a new button on the iOS and iPadOS keyboard and allows users to tell Siri what they want to write and get help from the assistant.

Apple has labeled the new Siri as a “beta” and “preview” internally, suggesting that the assistant won’t be marketed as fully finished software when it’s released later this year. The original Siri held the same description for two years. There is also the possibility of a waitlist of some sort for people who want to try new features, an approach used with the initial launch of the Apple Intelligence platform in 2024.

Apple is giving its Visual Intelligence technology a big upgrade in iOS 27. It’s moving the capability from an interface largely tied to the Camera Control button to a new Siri option within the Camera app. The change is intended to make the functionality more prominent throughout the operating system.

The Visual Intelligence feature is adding support for recognizing and taking action on both nutrition labels and contact information. Right now, it can recognize objects such as plants, extract information like calendar details, and send images to ChatGPT or Google search.

Apple is giving its photo editing a major AI upgrade with a series of new tools across its operating systems:

An Extend option lets users generate additional image content beyond the original frame. For example, someone could take a close-up photo of a landmark and use the tool to fill in surrounding scenery. Users can control how much is added — and where — by expanding the edges of the image with their fingers.

A Reframe option is designed primarily for spatial photos, Apple’s 3D image format for the Vision Pro headset. It allows users to adjust the perspective of an image after it is taken. A photo of a car, for instance, could be shifted from a front-facing view to emphasize the side.

There’s also a new Enhance feature to improve overall image quality and color.

The Clean Up tool, which Apple launched in 2024 as part of its original suite of AI features, is getting significant improvements during the iOS 27 cycle. Many users have complained it doesn’t work as advertised in current versions of Apple’s operating systems, often glitching and not properly removing items from the frame.

An AI feature called “Organize Tabs” for auto-sorting tabs in the Safari web browser has been in development across iOS 27, iPadOS 27, visionOS 27 and macOS 27. This will automatically group browser tabs into different topics, such as shopping, travel or work.

Apple’s Genmoji feature, which generates custom emoji, is also getting an upgrade. The company is planning a new Suggested Genmoji option in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 that auto-creates Genmoji images based on a user’s photos and commonly typed phrases.

The underlying image generation models provided by Apple for Genmoji and the Image Playground app are being improved to increase the quality of the graphics and make them more lifelike.

The Image Playground app — part of the 2024 Apple Intelligence rollout — has been completely redesigned across iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27. Previously created images on the main page’s grid now have more rounded edges, while the “New Image” button has been replaced by a simpler “+” icon. The interface for making images has also changed. It will now have a simplified look centered in a large, rounded square, with fewer controls and a “describe a change” option to edit an image that was just created.

Apple is adding an option to create custom wallpapers and home screen backgrounds using AI. This option is found in the wallpaper picker and lets users describe an image to generate it — similar to how pictures are created in Image Playground.

Shortcuts, the app that lets people create automations like starting a music playlist and sending their spouse an ETA when they get into the car, is being upgraded so that a user can type in what they want a shortcut to do using natural language. Today’s version requires manually building the directions step by step.

While it may not arrive in the first version of iOS 27, Apple is actively testing natural language prompt-based editing of photos so you can ask via voice or text for specific edits, like cropping or changing colors.

The company is planning to open up AI features like image and text generation — such as the ones inside Image Playground and Writing Tools — to third-party agent providers. Those features currently can tap into ChatGPT. With the change, third-party alternatives will be installable via their App Store apps. Apple has tested Claude and Gemini for this.

A new systemwide grammar checker is coming in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, going a step beyond the current text-editing tools.

The Apple Health app is getting a range of new AI features that were originally planned for a comprehensive health coach service internally dubbed “Mulberry” that was scaled back. The upgrade, which includes improved blood sugar-related tracking and the ability to use a device camera to monitor a person’s workout, is not expected to arrive in the initial release of iOS 27. Apple may also announce these at a later date than WWDC.

Apple has cleaned up the underlying operating systems across the board, looking to reduce bugs, improve security, remove glitches and enhance the Liquid Glass design that launched as part of the “26” releases.

The new macOS 27 update will get a minor redesign that aims to address Liquid Glass shadow and transparency quirks found in macOS 26 Tahoe. In some cases, these problems made text hard to read.

The company is making performance improvements aimed at extending the battery life of the iPhone, though it’s unclear if Apple will quantify how much longer devices will last.

The macOS 27 update will be especially Snow Leopard-like and include performance improvements aimed at making Macs with Apple-designed chips feel faster.

Apple is planning to make the iOS 27 Camera app interface fully customizable so users can pick their own set of controls — called widgets — that run along the top of the interface.

Notifications across iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 have a new effect for when alerts arrive. They now slide in from the left side of the screen, aligning with the new gesture system: Users swipe down from the left to open the Notification Center because swiping down from the center now opens the Search or Ask AI panel.

The iOS 27 Wallet app will gain a new “Create a Pass” feature, allowing users to build and customize their own digital tickets and gift cards. The capability is designed for situations where, for example, a gym or concert app provides a QR code for entry but doesn’t support the Wallet app.

Apple is planning a new bill-splitting service for iOS 27 and watchOS 27 that is built into the Wallet and Messages app. This will let customers take a photo of a receipt, assign line items to friends, and send them a bill for their share of an event or meal.

The Safari web browser in iOS 27 is gaining a new start page with four tabs across the top to more easily move between favorites, bookmarks, a reading list of saved articles and browsing history.

The Weather app in iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 is getting slight design changes, including a new “Conditions” panel on the main page for a particular city. It allows a user to see data points beyond temperature, including information on rain and wind. Doing so currently requires jumping into another page in the app.

Apple is tweaking the tab bar across the bottom of several iOS 27 apps to combine the search tab with other tabs. Currently, in iOS 26, most apps have the search toggle separated to the right side. This change will affect the Podcasts, TV, Music, Health and News apps. Apple already made the adjustment to the App Store in iOS 26.4.

When a user activates the iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 on-screen keyboard, a new animation will show the keys sliding up from the bottom of the device’s interface.

There are redo and undo controls when customizing the home screen on iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, which is convenient for people who frequently move around app icons and widgets.

The watchOS 27 update gets a new Modular watch face that includes a large clock placed at the center top with three elements placed below the time. It’s a simpler version of the Modular Ultra face included with the Apple Watch Ultra.

The watchOS software also includes various improvements to heart-rate monitoring and fitness tracking.

The AirPods control panel inside of the Settings app on iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 has been completely revamped to be more functional, better organized and more streamlined. That should mean the earbuds are easier to manage, and major feature options are better highlighted.

Apple is building support into iOS 27 for third-party AirPlay streaming alternatives. This means that outside services — such as Google Cast — can be set by users as the default solution for beaming video, photos and audio from an Apple device to a speaker or TV.

The Find My app for finding friends and items is getting a subtle visual refresh in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, including new icons in the tab bar.