Apple Wants Siri to Become a Real AI Agent — and the CEO Is Pushing Its Software Chief to Speed Up

Apple CEO John Ternus is pressuring SVP of software engineering Craig Federighi to accelerate the Siri roadmap and deliver an AI agent able to compete with OpenAI's Dots and Meta's Muse, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter on November 8, Gurman said Ternus urged Federighi in a closed-door meeting to move beyond routine upgrades. The message from the top is clear: Siri should stop being a voice that answers questions one at a time and start acting on its own. The photo with this article shows Siri's greeting screen on an iPhone.

Two updates on the way

Two updates are expected in the coming months. The first, with iOS 27.3, brings fine-grained control over Apple's native apps — cropping images in Photos, organizing Safari tabs, and similar actions inside Apple's own software. The second, in spring 2027, extends that reach to third-party apps: booking a table on OpenTable, ordering food via Grubhub, and other tasks inside apps Apple does not own. These are the next steps on a road Apple has already started walking — the iOS 27.3 app actions were reported earlier — but the ambition behind them is now bigger.

The bigger ambition — and the tension behind it

Leadership aims to move Siri beyond one-off requests into continuous background autonomy: monitoring connected apps, tracking persistent goals over days, and executing multi-step tasks without prompt-by-prompt instruction. A proactive Siri could debut as early as next year, though Apple has not confirmed a timeline or what the autonomous capabilities include. The App Intents framework could enable it without remote virtual machines, but the privacy and security trade-offs are substantial. There is also a tension at the heart of the push. Federighi delivered a functional personalized Siri AI on a tight schedule for iOS 27, but he has historically voiced concerns about the technology's privacy, security, societal and employment implications. Ternus wants speed; Federighi has been the voice of caution. How Apple balances those two pressures will decide what Siri becomes.

Sources

• Silicon Report — Apple CEO Pushes Federighi to Speed Siri Roadmap, Gurman Says