By Hamza Faisal
Apple wants Siri to stop waiting to be asked. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, chief executive John Ternus has pressed software chief Craig Federighi to speed up Apple's artificial intelligence roadmap and turn Siri into an assistant that works more like an agent — one that keeps track of goals and keeps working on them without the user starting every step.
Gurman reported the push in his Power On newsletter on Sunday, November 8, saying Ternus raised the issue with Federighi in a closed-door meeting. Gurman added that he believes Apple could make Siri "more like an agent" as early as next year.
Apple has not confirmed the report or announced any timeline for an agentic Siri, and some coverage has urged caution: AppleInsider said the report should be taken with a grain of salt.
From answering questions to chasing goals
Today's Siri AI is still largely request-based: it answers a question, carries out a task, and stops. The agentic version Gurman describes would behave more like OpenAI's Dots, Meta's Muse, and Grok — assistants that can keep track of goals, work out what needs to happen next, and continue pursuing an objective between conversations.
Siri AI shipped in beta with iOS 27 on September 14, and on November 3 Apple opened a developer preview letting apps bring their actions into Siri through App Intents, with "skills" that chain several actions into a single request.
Gurman expects first-party app control to reach the public with iOS 27.3 in December. The larger step — control of third-party apps, such as placing a food order or booking a restaurant reservation — is expected to wait until the spring of 2027. The agentic Siri he describes would build on that foundation, turning a capable app controller into an assistant that takes initiative on its own.
A new chief executive sets the pace
The pressure from the top is the other new element in Gurman's report. Ternus succeeded Tim Cook as chief executive on September 1, and the Siri push is among his first visible interventions in Apple's product roadmap. On Apple's November 2 earnings call — his first as chief executive — Ternus praised Siri AI as "the kind of Siri that we always wanted" and said it handles more than 2.5 billion requests every day.
On the same call, though, Ternus described Siri as "primarily request-based today" and called agentic capabilities "promising tools for users," while stressing that Apple wants users to understand what they are giving the assistant access to. Analyst Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management said he was disappointed Apple did not want to talk more about personalised agents.
Gurman also reported that Mike Rockwell, who took over Siri in March 2025, "continues to seriously consider" leaving his role as Siri chief, or Apple altogether, next year.
Apple admits it is playing catch-up
The Verge, covering Gurman's newsletter, noted that Federighi delivered a working version of Siri AI on a very short timeline — but that Apple has no illusions about keeping pace with its rivals. Gurman wrote that Apple has "not much of a choice, given current consumer and market demands."
For now, the timeline is a forecast, not a promise. The pieces Apple has actually shipped — Siri AI in iOS 27, the developer preview for app actions, and the iOS 27.3 betas — are real, but an assistant that pursues goals on its own remains something Apple "could" deliver as early as next year. Whether Ternus's push closes the gap with OpenAI and Meta will be judged on what ships in 2027.
