Apple has long been the world’s master of the late entrance. It didn’t create the MP3 player, smartphone, or smartwatch—but it redefined each category with polished design and frictionless user experience. That formula, however, is faltering in the AI era. Apple, once the industry’s beacon of innovation, now finds itself trailing behind faster-moving rivals in the artificial intelligence arms race. And the missteps aren’t just cosmetic—they are systemic.
A Familiar Strategy, Falling Short
Historically, Apple’s strategy has centered around deliberate refinement, not reckless speed. It waits, observes, and strikes with elegance. But with AI, the timing matters more than ever. Every day of delay is another day Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, or Meta gathers user data, improves models, and captures mindshare.
Apple’s AI initiative, dubbed “Apple Intelligence,” was supposed to be a turning point. But its rollout has been marred by delays, unclear messaging, underwhelming features, and product inconsistencies. Siri, once a pioneer in voice assistance, now looks like a fossil compared to the likes of ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or even Meta’s LLaMA-powered tools.
Even staunch Apple allies are alarmed. Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management remarked, “It kind of shocks the system a little bit for Apple to have a delay of about a year.” Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research, went further, calling the launch “a debacle” and “half-baked.”
Worse yet, the new Siri—the crown jewel of Apple’s AI ambitions—isn’t expected until 2025. Its absence has contributed to declining iPhone upgrades and lawsuits over misleading marketing.
Cracks Beneath the Surface
Inside Apple, tensions and disillusionment are mounting. Hired with great fanfare from Google in 2018, John Giannandrea was seen as Apple’s savior in AI. Seven years later, his tenure has yielded more frustration than triumph. Engineers describe the AI division as rudderless and plagued by bugs. Features like Siri’s ability to synthesize personal data often don’t work reliably. As one team member put it: “We fix one issue, and three more crop up.”
Apple’s own perfectionism may be part of the problem. Unlike rivals who are more comfortable releasing “beta” features, Apple’s brand equity is built on seamless experiences. As Tim Cook said, Siri delays are simply because “It’s just taking a bit longer than we thought.”
But in AI, “a bit longer” may mean irrelevance.
Hardware, But No Heart
To its credit, Apple built powerful Neural Engines into its chips and launched a cloud backend capable of running AI features off-device. But software-wise, it has lacked the conviction and execution of its competitors.
Apple has fewer AI researchers than rivals. It acquired fewer GPUs—a crucial resource for training large language models. Unlike Microsoft, which invested early in OpenAI, or Google, which rapidly scaled Gemini, Apple wavered. It didn’t have a consumer-facing chatbot until late 2024, when it integrated ChatGPT—ironically, not its own technology.
As internal teams scrambled, Apple’s famously secretive culture backfired. Communication broke down. Resources were misaligned. Morale sank. Siri’s infrastructure had to be split in two—old code for legacy functions and new code for AI queries—creating a Frankenstein’s monster that frustrated users and engineers alike.
In March 2025, John Giannandrea was stripped of product responsibilities. Siri was handed to Mike Rockwell, who had led the Vision Pro headset. The reshuffle signaled that Apple recognized its AI house needed urgent repairs.
Contrarian View: Is AI the Problem, Not Apple?
Some argue Apple’s struggle is not a reflection of its failure—but of AI’s hype outpacing reality. As Casey Newton noted on the Hard Fork podcast, “AI is still more of a science story than a product story.”
Many generative AI features feel unfinished, inaccurate, or gimmicky. Users don’t necessarily want predictive emails or AI-generated emojis. In that light, Apple’s reluctance to push half-baked features might be prudent, not incompetent.
Critics like Kevin Roose say Apple should “get comfortable with mistakes.” But that’s not what Apple does. Its brand is precision. Trust. Intuitive design. Rolling out flaky AI features to meet investor demands risks corroding that foundation.
Still, caution is a luxury Apple may no longer afford.
A $20 Billion Question
There’s more at stake than user experience. Alphabet pays Apple around $20 billion annually to be the default search engine on Safari. That deal is under legal threat. If AI chatbots replace traditional search, Apple needs a plan B—fast.
Integrating ChatGPT and potentially Google Gemini or Perplexity into Siri and Safari may serve as stopgaps. But without its own LLM leadership, Apple risks being a front-end shell for other people’s models.
Internally, there’s work underway. Apple is reportedly building a “monolithic model” for Siri, fully powered by LLMs. Thousands of analysts are reviewing Apple Intelligence output to reduce hallucinations. A smarter Siri is in the works. But insiders caution it may be 2026 before these efforts bear real fruit.
Lessons from a Walled Garden
AI doesn’t fit easily into Apple’s playbook. It thrives on openness, data, iteration, and a willingness to fail in public. Apple, on the other hand, guards its ecosystem, curates its content, and values control above speed.
That dissonance is existential. As Apple SVP Eddy Cue warned, “We’re not ExxonMobil. AI could do to Apple what the iPhone did to Nokia.”
Jobs’ Apple didn’t believe in search. It believed in telling users what they should want. That philosophy, baked into Apple’s DNA, may now be a liability. Because AI is search, discovery, recommendation, and interaction—done dynamically, not top-down.
If Apple can’t reinvent Siri as a proactive, intelligent assistant, it risks ceding the interface of the future to others. And with it, its grip on 2.35 billion devices.
The Road Ahead
Apple’s WWDC 2025 promises modest AI upgrades—some new features, an AI-powered health coach, better battery management. But the biggest leap—Siri 2.0—is still out of reach.
The company’s pivot to keep “Apple Intelligence” and “Siri” separate in branding is telling. It signals that Apple is aware of Siri’s damaged reputation. But branding alone won’t fix execution.
This may be Apple’s toughest challenge yet. But it’s not out of the race. It still has the brand, the platform, the user trust. What it needs now is urgency—and leadership that’s willing to embrace the messiness AI demands.
Whether Apple can transition from a perfectionist to a pragmatist may determine not just its AI future—but its future, full stop.
