According to The Verge citing Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple CEO John Ternus is pressing the company's AI chief Craig Federighi to accelerate the Siri roadmap, with the goal of delivering an AI agent that can compete with OpenAI's Dots or Meta's Muse. The report says that while Federighi has delivered a functional version of Siri AI on an incredibly short timeline, the company has no illusions that it is keeping pace with its rivals.
At the same time, a separate report from The Verge shows that code in the iOS 27.3 beta contains clues about chatbots, and Apple's HomeView smart home hub may gain support for conversational apps.
Siri roadmap under pressure, two improvements ahead
Gurman's report notes that Siri is expected to receive two significant improvements in the coming months. One will give the assistant fine-grained control over Apple's first-party apps, enabling actions such as rotating and cropping images in Photos and organizing Safari tabs. The report did not fully disclose the specifics of the second improvement.
The report also notes that Apple has no illusions about the gap between itself and its competitors.
That phrasing echoes the news of Ternus pressing to accelerate the roadmap, indicating that Apple's leadership feels urgency about Siri's progress on agentic capabilities.
iOS 27.3 beta shows "Conversational Apps" flag
Another clue comes from code in the iOS 27.3 beta. A category flag labeled "Conversational Apps" appears in the code. The report says there are no details yet about which apps would fall under that category, but it seems reasonable that AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude could be added to HomeView.
According to X user pdfu, the beta also adds support for bidirectional audio routing and session management, though the user said the related features are "not fully connected yet." Apple also added anti-spoofing protection: after three failed attempts, users must authenticate via iPhone, and a lockout mechanism is in place. The report did not elaborate on the specifics of the lockout mechanism.
Two clues point to the same strategic direction
Put together, the acceleration of Siri's agentic push and the possibility of HomeView adding chatbots both point to an overall acceleration of Apple's AI assistant strategy. The former focuses on upgrading Siri's own capabilities and its control over first-party apps, while the latter involves the possibility of the smart home hub opening up to third-party conversational AI apps.
It is worth noting that HomeView support for chatbots is currently only speculation based on beta code flags, and Apple has not announced any related plans. The specific launch timing of Siri's two improvements, the content of the second improvement, and which apps the "Conversational Apps" category will cover all await further confirmation.