Sources: an exec overseeing Siri told staff the delays were ugly, made worse by Apple publicly promoting the new features, and it's unclear when they will ship

Apple Inc.'s top executive overseeing its Siri virtual assistant told staff that delays to key features have been ugly and embarrassing …

Bloomberg 2025-03-15 Mark Gurman

Context & Ripple Effects

This report follows earlier reports of engineering problems and software bugs in Apple’s Siri overhaul. It adds an internal-accountability dimension: the issue is not only technical slippage, but the gap between promoted capabilities and a delivery schedule Apple cannot yet state clearly.

A week earlier, coverage said senior executives had questioned whether personalized Siri worked properly and that some believed it might require a rebuild. That makes the acknowledged delay a meaningful test of Apple’s ability to turn its assistant roadmap into shipped software.

First-order effects

Apple must manage a mismatch between public expectations for Siri’s new capabilities and an uncertain release timetable, putting the Siri team and its leadership under immediate pressure.
The reported delays reinforce the concerns in internal testing of personalized Siri, suggesting that feature readiness—not promotion—is now the gating factor for launch decisions.

Second-order effects

Products and software releases that depend on the new Siri capabilities may need to wait for the assistant work to stabilize; later coverage connected Siri readiness to a delayed smart-home display launch.
Apple’s marketing and platform teams face a narrower margin for announcing assistant features before they are demonstrably ready, since each delay raises the cost of resetting customer expectations.

Third-order effects

If this pattern persists, Apple’s assistant roadmap could become a constraint on adjacent device launches rather than a feature layer that ships alongside them.
The episode points to a broader shift in which reliable, personalized assistants become a product-integration challenge: model and software quality must align with hardware, interfaces, and public launch commitments.

The trend: This is one data point in the race to make the assistant distribution layer dependable enough to anchor both software updates and new device categories.

Discussion

@gateklons @gateklons on bluesky
So much for the DMA depriving Europeans of these *amazing* tools they're just clamouring for (very few actually care) — www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
@eric-franklin Eric Franklin on bluesky
It is rarely advised to pre-announce a pending feature release. You remove any ability to “surprise on the upside,” assuming only downside risk. — It's appealing to use a promise to look like you're not falling behind your competitors but Apple deserves this “egg in their face…
@applechunks @applechunks on bluesky
I want AI shut off altogether. I don't need it looking through my photos and emails, gathering info without me knowing. — Offer NO Apple Intelligence as default and I'll feel much better about Apple products.
@xenago Noah on bluesky
Better to never release garbage AI products than to be “ugly”. Apple has announced and dropped things before, like AirPower.
@viticci.macstories.net Federico Viticci on bluesky
What a banger of a report from @markgurman.bsky.social on the Siri delays. — It seems to confirm: — Apple showed a concept video last year — There was in-fighting between Siri team and marketing — They demoed the new Siri and worked 80% of the time — 🍿 …
@parkerortolani.com Parker Ortolani on bluesky
“Robby Walker, who serves as a senior director at Apple, delivered the stark comments during an all-hands meeting for the Siri division, saying that the team was facing a bad period. Walker also said that it's unclear when the enhancements will actually launch...” www.bloomberg.…
@joenandez Joe Fernandez on threads
Their slippery slope willingness to compromise on what seemed to be a long time principled stance on not pre-announcing pre-launch products tells me everything I need to know about what is happening inside Apple right now.
@parkerortolani Parker Ortolani on threads
the question that everyone should be asking is did marcom jump the gun knowing Siri wasn't close to ready or was engineering less than forthright about their ability to deliver worst case scenario is that everyone knew it was a long shot and ran with it anyway out of hubris or an…
@rjonesy Ryan Jones on x
My notes on the Apple Intelligence all hands meeting: - not held by JG, Tim, or Craig - AI only works 66-80% of the time (that's VERY low, the last 20% is 80% of the work, even 95% is un-shippable) So it basically didn't exist at WWDC. Ouch. - also blamed MarCom, fairly, for the…
@gartenberg Michael Gartenberg on x
.GruberGate (as I shall now call it) is causing quite a stir in Cupertino. This is a time when it's not “what would Steve do?” But more like “what would the late Katie Cotton do?”. There's a lot of wailing and gnashing of the teeth and a lot of the arguing what to do. No one …
@gerstenzang Sam Gerstenzang on x
I love the idea of Apple leaking they had an exec yell at someone as a response to John Gruber's piece.
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
Robby Walker, who runs Siri and reports to AI chief John Giannandrea said it remains unclear when the new Siri features will launch. There are other more urgent priorities and upcoming launches. But they will come.
@stevesi Steven Sinofsky on x
Apple's Siri Chief Calls AI Delays Ugly and Embarrassing, Promises Fixes @markgurman // My lesson on features assisting a creative process is that they have to be right nearly all of the time otherwise they _feel_ wrong all of the time. We used to say “90% right is 100% wrong”. […
@gartenberg Michael Gartenberg on x
Tim probably furious that he's been made to look clueless. Marketing is blaming engineering for not delivering. Engineering will blame marketing for over promising and under delivering. Whoever put the final approval on the WWDC “demos” is going to have to answer why that happ…
@benbajarin Ben Bajarin on x
Greatest AND more personal assistant is likely their goal here. Apple hopefully builds Siri as a personal (unique to every customer) foundation model.
@rustybrick Barry Schwartz on x
Apple lost its swag?
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
The delayed Siri features don't work a third of the time, according to the executive in charge.
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
As of now, Apple doesn't plan to immediately fire any top executives over the AI crisis. That decision could theoretically change at any time. The company is still poised to make changes. It has discussed moving more executives under Giannandrea to assist with a turnaround.
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
BREAKING: Apple's top Siri exec called AI delays embarrassing & ugly in meeting, while saying a decision to promote features before they were ready worsened the situation. Still, he praised the team & vowed to make Siri the “world's greatest” assistant. https://www.bloomberg.com/…
r/StockMarket r on reddit
Apple's Siri Chief Calls AI Delays Ugly and Embarrassing
r/technology r on reddit
Apple's Siri Chief Calls AI Delays Ugly and Embarrassing
r/apple r on reddit
Bloomberg: Apple's Siri Chief Calls AI Delays Ugly and Embarrassing, Promises Fixes
@kye.boats Kye on bluesky
OK. Weird article premise based entirely around a strawman. The issues are: — 1. Siri has sucked, consistently, for 15 years. — 2. Apple very evidently announced and pre-marketed Apple Intelligence features *way* ahead of when they should've, but they wanted an AI stock pri…
@selfdrivinghumans @selfdrivinghumans on bluesky
Agree.
@303 @303 on bluesky
well that's a relief since it's been half-baked since 2011
@iryantldr@mastodon.social Ryan Christoffel on mastodon
Apple's Siri delays may have actually averted a true crisis for the company. Here's why. https://9to5mac.com/...
@wongmjane Jane Manchun Wong on threads
They should just do the “Pixel” strategy by pretending to be “leaking” it to access journalists
@mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on threads
Did I go overboard on the maritime analogies here? You decide. ⚓️ But really, I'm less worried about Apple blowing it with regard to AI than I am about *why* they are — and what that might ultimately mean for the company... 🏴‍☠️
@eshumarneedi @eshumarneedi on threads
That's why you don't announce features that don't exist yet. — RE: https://www.threads.net/...

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