Some say Apple’s marketing team made Siri “ugly”

As Siri and AI integration lags, Apple faces more criticism. Siri’s revitalization and AI advancements planned in June 2023 have been postponed by Apple. These long-awaited Apple Intelligence capabilities are unknown, and recent internal conversations suggest that Apple is unsure when they will arrive.

Robby Walker, Apple’s senior director supervising Siri, chaired a recent all-hands meeting that revealed team issues. Walker called the delay “ugly” and recognized staff discontent and stress due to Siri’s underperformance.

He also warned that the delayed improvements may not be ready for iOS 19, the company’s intended release. “Doesn’t mean that we’re shipping then,” Walker allegedly told colleagues, indicating that Apple would likely reveal the feature sooner before it ships.

Walker said, according Bloomberg:

Apple has other project obligations. We wish to uphold our pledges to those, which may be more urgent than the postponed features.

Marketing Team to Blame?
The leaked discussion also highlighted rising tension between Siri development and marketing. Walker said the PR team promoted sophisticated features like Siri’s capacity to grasp personal context and respond depending on screen content despite their unfinished status.

Walker said that WWDC teases and consumer expectations worsened the problem. Apple has recently deleted an iPhone 16 ad promoting these features and inserted warnings to many website areas stating that they would be postponed until an undefined date.

Quality concerns apparently prompted the delay of these functionalities. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that a third of the functionalities failed to operate.