Apple (AAPL) Opens Siri to Chatbots as it Struggles to Find AI Footing

Apple (AAPL) is reportedly still working on its own AI systems, but it needs to get into the game faster as rivals like Alphabet (GOOGL) integrate their in-house AI models with their phones. To this end, Bloomberg reports that Apple plans to open up Siri to rival AI assistants in its iOS 27 update.

Apple has had issues with machine intelligence before, notably around its decade-long self-driving car program that wound down in 2024. Potentially hampering efforts, startups and rivals are poaching their engineers, and Apple reportedly gave iPhone designers six-figure bonuses to stem the tide. 

The market has set Apple among the Magnificent 7, the hyperscalers powering the AI revolution. Therefore, it expects Apple to show growth from, well, AI. Especially as the hardware market gets more competitive, Apple has been trying to pivot to digital services to keep up the growth that Wall Street wants. It’s pushed into health wearables and guards access and cross-compatibility in its ecosystem closely to encourage customer lock-in. In a way, Apple opening up to competitors is conceding defeat – at least for now.

Apple does have a history of using third-party tech before developing its own competitive versions in house, such as it did with its semiconductor chips. As companies take on enormous amounts of debt to fund the AI revolution, Apple is sitting on $66.9 billion in cash and cash equivalents as per its last earnings report, which ended December 31, 2025. So, it will likely continue working on its own versions.

The company previously announced a partnership with OpenAI as it works to revamp Siri as an AI assistant. Now, it’s opening the playing field further, with multiple chatbots reportedly working with the upcoming Siri app and other Apple Intelligence features. Bloomberg writes that it means users can send queries to AIs like Gemini or Claude through Siri’s voice assistant.

Speaking of Gemini, Apple’s separate deal with the AI agent is more for its underlying technology rather than chatbot access. The Information reported that Apple has “full access” to Gemini and can distill it into smaller models that could run on devices rather than in the cloud. We’ll see what developments come from there. Apple is expected to announce its latest software updates in June at its Worldwide Developers Conference. 

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