Apple Intelligence grows up at WWDC — and actually means it this time

Apple used WWDC 2026 to answer the question it's been dodging for two years: yes, we're serious about AI. The centerpiece is a fully rearchitected Siri, powered by Google's Gemini models and capable of cross-app agentic actions.

This isn't the Siri you've been ignoring in favor of typing. New Siri can pull context from your emails, update your calendar, draft replies based on what's actually in your inbox — all on-device, private, no cloud detour required. A standalone Siri app now keeps persistent chat history synced across iPhone, Mac, and Vision Pro via iCloud. iMessage gets native agentic capabilities, so Siri can act on your behalf within conversations. Developer APIs let third-party apps tap Apple Intelligence without training their own models.

Is it enough to close the gap with Google and OpenAI? Jury's still out. But for the first time in a while, Apple's AI announcements didn't feel like a PR exercise — they felt like someone had finally decided to ship real products. Also worth noting: this was Tim Cook's final WWDC as CEO. He went out swinging.