Siri AI hands-on: A smart and helpful assistant

I quickly found that Siri AI’s bite-sized responses didn’t repeat endlessly like many contemporary AI assistants, often sticking to a single paragraph. When I verbally asked for a nice beach hiking route to watch the sunrise near the Golden Gate Bridge, he briefly recommended a popular trail in the Presidio neighborhood as well as an option in the Marin Headlands. Keywords are bolded by Siri in the text answer that appears alongside the audible response for easy scanning. Since I wanted more information before checking out, I scrolled down to the text answer to read additional details about each option.

Apple’s partnership with Google is a key driver behind this Siri overhaul. Google twin Now helps power the basic model of the voice assistant, Apple intelligence. Siri’s output with this new model was more in line with what I was looking for, rather than just suggesting some website links for me to search. When I asked general questions, like “What should I do today,” Siri combed through my recent messages and highlighted recent plans that I started discussing with friends but never finished.

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

This style of AI search requires Siri to index your phone, which means scanning and indexing its data for easy reference. When I updated my iPhone to the iOS 27 developer beta, it took just over a week for the device to be fully indexed.

At WWDC 2026, Apple repeatedly pointed out its privacy-preserving approach to Siri AI. As part of the company Private cloud computingApple claims that it does not store data from users and only pulls data from users when they ask Siri a question. Similar to the previous version of Apple Assistant, uninterested users can turn off Siri AI in their settings.

I tested Siri AI on iPhone 16 Pro Maxwhich will have many, but not all, Siri AI features. Based on what has been released publicly, only the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Max will have all the installations, such as more diverse audio options. As for the rest of the lineup: Every iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 model will be able to run the new Siri, while only the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will be compatible. Older models will not support this voice assistant.

Siri, let’s take a walk

Like any good tourist, I started my morning with a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge, where there are plenty of hiking trails nearby to wander around and take in the views. Because Siri AI is also integrated with iPhone devices Camera applicationI decided to open it and take a quick photo of the blurry path in front of me to see how Siri would respond.

I didn’t ask Siri any questions; I just showed it a snapshot of what I saw at that moment, and the AI ​​responded with a short history of the Cypress Tunnel at Point Reyes National Seashore. Siri was right to observe the cypress trees in Monterey. But the tunnel in question is located an hour’s drive from where I was, which could be confusing for someone unfamiliar with the area.

Despite this obvious bug, the more I talked to Siri while out and about, the more I liked other functions, like helping to uncover photos from past adventures hidden among the thousands of photos in my camera roll.