Report: Apple preparing Gemini-powered Siri update for February as AI assistant competition intensifies

Apple is preparing to announce a new version of Siri in the second half of February, according to a report that cites Bloomberg. The update is described as central to Apple’s partnership with Google and is expected to leverage Google’s Gemini AI models, marking a notable shift in how Apple positions its voice assistant in a market increasingly defined by large language models and chatbot-style interfaces.

The reported plan suggests Apple is aiming for a near-term leap in Siri’s capabilities—particularly around natural language understanding and responsiveness—without waiting for its broader platform refresh cycle. In other words, the February update is framed as an important step in an evolving Siri roadmap rather than the end state, giving Apple a faster way to answer competitors that have pushed generative AI features into consumer products over the last two years.

The same report says the February release may precede a more substantial Siri overhaul that Apple intends to discuss at WWDC in June. That later version is described as more conversational and more similar to modern chatbots, with the possibility of operating directly on Google’s cloud infrastructure. If that direction holds, it would reflect a pragmatic approach: Apple relying on partner infrastructure for certain AI workloads while it modernizes its own user experience.

For users, the practical significance is straightforward: the quality of an assistant increasingly depends on how well it can handle context, follow-up questions, and multi-step tasks. If Apple’s Gemini-powered Siri update delivers meaningfully better dialogue and reliability, it could reshape expectations for iPhone and iPad voice interaction—and raise new questions about where processing happens, how data is handled, and what role third-party model providers will play inside Apple’s ecosystem.