Apple investors delivered a swift verdict on the tech giant’s artificial intelligence revival plan, and it wasn’t pretty.

Shares in the iPhone maker fell 2% by the close of trading on Monday, after an initial rally of more than 3% quickly evaporated, as Wall Street weighed up what was unveiled at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference in the USA.

Apple has fallen behind in artificial intelligence as Wall Street seeks clarity on the company’s long-term AI strategy. That pressure was on full display at WWDC, where the company’s answer to mounting criticism was to lean heavily on a rival, Google.

Apple unveiled Siri AI at its Worldwide Developers Conference, an entirely new version of its voice assistant built on Google Gemini and designed to be more capable, conversational, and aware of what is on a user’s screen.

Apple confirmed a multi-year, roughly $1 billion annual pact to licence Google’s Gemini model, which now powers the rebuilt Siri AI and next-generation Apple Intelligence. In short: one of the world’s most valuable technology companies is paying a competitor $1 billion a year to fix a product it has owned since 2011.

Software chief Craig Federighi pitched the overhaul as a major leap forward, declaring that Siri was now “more intelligent, knowledgeable and capable.” Observers at the event were less convinced, with many noting the announced features closely mirrored capabilities Apple had previewed previously, with little genuinely new on show beyond the expanded Google tie-up.

Since acquiring Siri in 2010, Apple has possessed contextual high ground, and largely squandered it. For fifteen years, Siri functioned as a command router rather than a reasoning engine, breeding deep consumer distrust for anything beyond setting timers. CTOL Digital Solutions
The credibility problem is compounded by the fact the revamped assistant won’t reach consumers immediately.

The new Siri AI will launch as a beta in August, a clear signal the technology is not yet ready, and that Apple’s developers remain in catch-up mode against rivals including Google, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s Claude.

The revamped assistant will arrive as part of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27, expected as a free software update around September in Australia.

However, the rollout faces significant geographic constraints. Apple confirmed its new AI features will not be available in China as it works through regulatory requirements, while the EU rollout will also be restricted under local regulations, shutting the technology out of two of the world’s largest markets from day one.

Investors and analysts have grilled Apple about its AI strategy on earnings calls over the past year. Although iPhone sales have been thriving, Wall Street wants to know how AI plays into the company’s long-term vision.

The delayed, underwhelming rollout of Apple Intelligence in 2024,2025 only compounded scepticism. Before users trust the new Siri AI with sensitive, multi-step workflows, it must execute mundane tasks flawlessly, and that is where the standard analysis fractures. CTOL Digital Solutions
The WWDC event was also notable for a personal milestone: Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is stepping down in September, wiped away a tear during what was his final WWDC keynote.

Cook’s successor, hardware engineering chief John Ternus, was given an early platform to address the developer community he will soon lead.

Beyond Siri, Federighi announced the next macOS would be called Golden Gate, performance and security improvements across Apple’s operating system lineup, and further refinements to the Liquid Glass design language, including a new slider allowing users to adjust the effect’s intensity, following complaints that it made text difficult to read.

For Apple, the stakes could not be higher. The company that invented the modern smartphone voice assistant now finds itself paying a billion dollars a year to a rival just to stay relevant in the AI race it once claimed to be winning.