Siri AI Hands-On: A Smart, Helpful Assistant

I quickly realized that Siri’s AI bite-sized answers don’t run continuously like many of today’s AI assistants, often just following a single paragraph. After asking in a comment about the best way to hike the beach to see the sunrise near the Golden Gate Bridge, I specifically recommended a popular trail in the Presidio area and another trail in the Marin Headlands. Siri typed the bold text into the text that appeared along with the audio feedback for easy editing. Since I wanted more information before I went out, I switched to the voicemail to read more about each method.

Apple’s partnership with Google is the main driver behind this Siri. About Google Gemini now supports the power of the voice assistant model, Apple Intelligence. Siri’s output with this new version became more relevant to what I wanted, instead of just giving me a bunch of web links to search. When I asked the usual questions, like “What should I do today,” Siri looked through my recent messages and showed me the latest plans I’d started discussing with friends but never finished.

Another key feature of Siri AI is personalization based on what you have on your device, whether it’s data in photos or your messages. It also doesn’t keep you locked into Apple services only; When I asked Siri to type a text, the voice assistant confirmed whether I wanted to send it via Apple Messages or Meta’s Messenger service.

This AI search method requires Siri to record your phone, which means analyzing and indexing its data for easy viewing. After I updated my iPhone to the iOS 27 beta, it took about a week for the device to track itself.

At WWDC 2026, Apple repeatedly mentioned its privacy policy for Siri AI. As part of the company Private Cloud ComputingApple says it doesn’t store data from users and only pulls it when you ask Siri a question. As with the previous version of Apple’s assistant, users who are not interested can turn off Siri AI in their preferences.

I tried Siri AI on iPhone 16 Pro Maxwhich will have most but not all of Siri AI. According to the leaked information, only the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Max will have all the changes, such as voice options. As for the entire lineup: Every model of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 will be able to run the new Siri, while only the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are compatible. Older models do not support the voice assistant.

Siri, let’s go

Like any good tourist, I started my morning by going to the Golden Gate Bridge, where there are many nearby walking paths to wander around and take in the views. Since Siri AI is also integrated with the iPhone camera appI decided to open it and take a quick picture of the foggy path in front of me to see how Siri would respond.

I didn’t ask Siri any questions; I just showed a snapshot of what I saw at the time, and the AI ​​tool responded with a brief history of the Cypress Tree Tunnel located at Point Reyes National Seashore. Siri was right to watch the Monterey cypress trees. But the route he described is an hour’s drive from where I was, which can be confusing for someone unfamiliar with the area.

Although this seems like chaos, as I interacted with Siri while walking, I became very impressed with other activities, such as helping to reveal photos of past events hidden among thousands of photos on my camera.