I’m out hiking and testing a developer beta of Siri AI, Apple’s revamped voice assistant, when fog engulfs the Golden Gate Bridge behind me. It’s beautiful, but I’m coatless, cold, and ready for something warm. So I pull out my iPhone and ask this new Siri where I can find some fluffy pancakes nearby. A translucent orb at the bottom of the smartphone screen spins around a few times, then the voice assistant responds with a recommendation: a spot called Eats in the Inner Richmond.
This version of Siri — conversational, omnipresent, genuinely helpful — has been long delayed. At its annual developer conference this year, Apple shared how it would finally come to fruition as part of iOS 27. The voice assistant is now highly personalized based on your messages, photos, and emails. It’s also better at understanding questions and interacting with apps. In many ways, it feels nothing like the old Siri. That’s a good thing.
Since Apple plans to roll out this assistant to the public later this year, I was curious to see how helpful Siri AI might be as a travel guide, even in its beta form. So I grabbed my iPhone and headed out to explore San Francisco.
Getting Started with Siri AI
The evolution of Siri is striking, even in this early iteration. While before Siri was a more limited, isolated experience, it’s now integrated into the iPhone search bar and pops up when you swipe down on your screen. You can chat conversationally with it or swipe down on Siri’s answers to type follow-up questions. These back-and-forths are stored in a dedicated app, so you can return to past conversations.
I quickly found that Siri AI’s bite-sized replies don’t drone on forever like many other AI assistants, generally sticking to a single paragraph. Key phrases in the text reply are bolded for easy scanning. Apple’s partnership with Google drives much of this Siri overhaul, with the third generation of Apple Foundation Models built in collaboration with Google.
Siri’s output felt more attuned to what I was looking for, rather than just suggesting a list of web links. When I asked generic questions like “What should I do today,” Siri combed through my recent messages and highlighted plans I started discussing with friends but never finalized. Another key feature is hyper-personalization based on what’s on your device, whether that’s photos or messages. It also doesn’t lock you into Apple-only services — when I asked Siri to draft a text, it asked whether I wanted to send it via Messages or Meta’s Messenger.
This kind of AI search requires Siri to index your phone, which took a little over a week to complete after updating to the iOS 27 developer beta. Apple emphasizes its privacy-preserving approach — through its Private Cloud Compute system, Apple claims it doesn’t store user data and only pulls from it when you ask Siri a question.
I tested Siri AI on an iPhone 16 Pro Max. Not all features are available on all devices — only the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Max support all features, while every iPhone 16 and 17 model can run the new Siri, and iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are compatible. Older models won’t support this assistant.
The more I chatted with Siri while walking around, the more impressed I became. It helped me rediscover photos from past adventures hidden among thousands of images in my camera roll. While not perfect — it once confused a location an hour away — Siri AI represents a genuine leap forward for Apple’s voice assistant.
