I tested Siri AI, and so far it’s working

Parents want one thing, and one thing only, from AI: adding football game schedules or “spirit week” themed dates from email or poorly edited flyers. on their calendar in one picture. And I have good news for parents with iPhones – the new Siri can do just that.

After disappointed in its first installation of Siri full of AI, Apple is trying again. Newly updated Siri AI they can chat with you about what’s killing the flowers in your yard, put together a shopping list for the hardware store, and set a reminder to fertilize the flower bed. It can reference information in your email and calendar to make recommendations or provide a helpful answer to the question: “When should I go to the airport?” And yes, it can also add event lists from email to your calendar. I tried all these scenarios for myself and saw them happen. AI Siri is real this time.

But it’s also a key feature of an AI assistant in 2026, especially when you compare it to what Gemini has been doing on Android for the past few years. Google’s chatbot has been able to add multiple calendar events from photos for at least a year now. It has been examining the problems of plants and planning reminders for months nowif not. The new Siri is built on Gemini models, so it makes sense that the first iteration of Siri AI sounds a bit like “Gemini, circa 2025.”

Siri AI has its own flavor, however. Apple has it A lot of personal stuff is going on under the hood and in the cloud. It pulls from the device’s data that is taken from things like emails and messages. This information is written so that Siri can access important information when needed. Information that cannot be fully processed on the device is sent to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute with only pieces of data attached. Gemini handles personal matters differently; you choose to share your Gmail or calendar, and then it goes there for you when you need it.

Siri AI working well is highly dependent on the AI’s understanding. So far, so good. I asked when I needed to return the camera equipment I borrowed from WWDC, and it found the event on the calendar I created and in the email (it should be back on Friday, to be recorded). Likewise, enabling it with something like “add this event to my calendar” always causes it to show up on my screen. So far, so good.

I couldn’t get Siri to participate in any of the games – I didn’t really put any pressure on it, but the guardrails were too strong to return a quick “I can’t help you with this”. Good. As a conversationalist, the new Siri also seems less interesting than Gemini. I gave them both the same prompt asking them why the flowers in front of my house seemed to be wilting. Both of them answered clearly with many excuses, but Gemini started with “This is very frustrating…” when Siri spoke directly and realized what was going on.

The new Siri also handled my requests well. I asked for a garden center “closer to home” and it gave a great idea. It also created a new reminder list with a to-do list for my gardening project and added a calendar event, all from the prompt. Basic stuff, but here it is Secret. The fact that it works is a step forward that has been years in the making.

The new Siri appears in many places on the iPhone. I’ve gotten into the habit of swiping on the home screen and using search to get to apps, and every time I do it there’s a prompt to “search or ask” with a bright, blinking cursor. Pressing the stop button for a long time will summon Siri from the Dynamic Island now, instead of showing her as a bright border around the screen. All the changes add to the subtle feeling that you’re never too far away from Siri.

This iteration of Siri feels like the AI ​​assistant you’d build when you know you can’t screw it up. It does a number of basic functions – it’s not here DoorDashing your burritos to you – but it does what it advertises. For a company that promised Siri two years ago that never happened, that’s a big problem. “It works” and “It actually sends to customers” are two goals that Apple could not miss here. It’s only in beta, but it’s more authentic than the first AI Siri we were shown at WWDC has ever been. Apple needs this Siri to regain trust. And based on what I’ve seen so far, this seems like a small step towards restoring that trust.

Photo by Allison Johnson/The Verge