For years, Siri has symbolised both Apple’s early ambition in artificial intelligence and its growing limitations in the age of generative AI.
Now, Apple is making its most consequential AI move yet. In a multi-year partnership with Google, Apple will use Google’s Gemini models and cloud infrastructure to power Siri and its next-generation Apple Intelligence features.
This also places Gemini at the heart of a long-awaited Siri revamp.
Moreover, the move marks a major strategic shift for Apple. The company is now ready to combine its hardware-first, privacy-centric philosophy with best-in-class external AI capabilities to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Here’s everything you need to know.
The Big Announcement: Apple and Google Join Forces
Apple has confirmed that it will integrate Google’s Gemini AI models into its Apple Foundation Models. This will form the backbone of future Apple Intelligence features. The collaboration is expected to begin rolling out later this year, with a revamped Siri among the first visible outcomes.
According to Apple, the decision followed a “careful evaluation” of available AI technologies. The company concluded that Google’s Gemini platform offered the “most capable foundation” to deliver “advanced, reliable, and scalable” AI experiences across Apple’s ecosystem.
Key elements of the deal include:
- Gemini models will power Apple Foundation Models
- Google Cloud infrastructure supporting AI workloads
- Apple Intelligence will continue to run on-device and via Private Cloud Compute
- A renewed focus on privacy-first AI experiences
Rather than surrendering control, Apple is effectively layering Gemini’s intelligence beneath its own tightly managed AI stack.
Why Siri Needed a Reset
Launched in 2011, Siri introduced voice assistants to the mainstream long before Alexa or Google Assistant. But as AI evolved, Siri struggled to keep pace.
The core problems with Siri:
- Limited conversational memory
- Reliance on rigid command structures
- Weak reasoning and contextual understanding
- Poor performance compared to modern AI chatbots
Apple publicly teased a major Siri upgrade last year, only to delay it, raising concerns about whether the company had fallen too far behind in the generative AI race.
Why Apple Chose Gemini Instead of Building Its Own AI
Apple’s decision to use Google’s Gemini instead of a homegrown foundation model is peculiar. But here’s why the decision is important.
Building a frontier AI system is no longer just a software challenge. It requires years of training, computing budgets, and constant iteration at a global scale. Google has already made those investments, and that gives Apple a faster path to competitive AI capabilities without further delay.
With this collaboration, Apple now prioritises integration and experience. The company’s strategy is to wrap advanced intelligence inside products users already trust, while focusing its resources on where it has historically excelled:
- Tight hardware–software integration
- System-level AI features across iOS and macOS
- Reliability and consistency at a massive scale
Gemini powers the underlying intelligence, but Apple Foundation Models sit on top, and Apple Intelligence determines how AI behaves across devices.
User data continues to be processed on-device or via Private Cloud Compute, preserving Apple’s privacy-first positioning while allowing it to move quickly in an AI race it can’t afford to sit out.
Gemini’s Role: From Assistant to Answer Engine
By integrating Gemini, Siri is expected to move beyond simple voice commands and become a true AI answer engine, capable of reasoning, summarising, synthesising, and personalising responses in real time.
What Gemini-powered Siri could enable:
- Natural, multi-step conversations that retain context
- Complex question answering, not just web lookups
- Task automation across apps and services
- Personalised insights based on user behaviour and preferences
- Smarter search interactions that feel less transactional
For hundreds of millions of iPhone users, this could fundamentally change how they search for information, shifting from keyword-based queries to conversational problem-solving.
Apple Intelligence: Control Without Compromise
Despite partnering with Google, Apple is maintaining its signature stance on privacy and control.
Apple Intelligence will:
- Run primarily on-device where possible
- Use Private Cloud Compute for heavier AI tasks
- Avoid persistent user profiling
- Keep personal data encrypted and inaccessible to third parties
Google provides the intelligence layer, but Apple controls how, where, and when that intelligence is used. This hybrid approach allows Apple to leapfrog AI capability gaps without abandoning its core values.
The Context: Apple’s Late Entry into the AI Race
Since ChatGPT’s breakout in late 2022, tech giants have poured billions into AI models, specialised chips, and massive cloud expansions. Google accelerated Gemini’s development, Microsoft doubled down on OpenAI, and Meta open-sourced powerful large language models.
Apple, by contrast, stayed silent.
Apple’s AI hesitation stemmed from:
- A preference for polished and consumer-ready products
- The complexity of deploying AI at Apple’s scale
- Concerns about hallucinations and reliability
- A strict privacy-first philosophy
That caution, however, came at a cost. As rivals shipped increasingly capable AI tools, Apple’s silence fueled skepticism about its long-term AI relevance.
The Gemini partnership is Apple’s clearest signal yet that it intends to compete—on its own terms.
Why Google Wins Too
This deal isn’t just a win for Apple.
Google benefits by:
- Embedding Gemini into the daily workflows of iOS users
- Expanding Gemini’s footprint beyond Android and Chrome
- Strengthening its cloud AI dominance
- Reinforcing investor confidence amid intense AI competition
Notably, the partnership arrives as Google briefly surpassed Apple with a $4 trillion market capitalisation.
It also underscores how central AI has become to market leadership.
What This Means For Search, Apps & The Ecosystem
If Gemini-powered Siri succeeds, the implications go far beyond voice assistants.
Potential ripple effects:
- Reduced reliance on traditional web search
- New discovery models for apps and services
- Increased pressure on third-party AI assistants
- A shift toward OS-level AI experiences
Apple controls the entry point to information for millions of users. A smarter Siri could quietly reshape digital behaviour without users ever opening a browser.
The Bottom Line
Apple’s partnership with Google is less about playing catch-up and more about redefining how AI fits into everyday computing. By pairing Gemini’s raw intelligence with Apple’s hardware, software, and privacy discipline, the company is betting that the future of AI doesn’t belong to the loudest innovator, but to the one that integrates intelligence most seamlessly.
For Siri, this may finally be the moment it grows up.
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