Apple’s belated Siri AI push could effectively be a Gemini skin

Apple will reportedly lean hard on Google’s Gemini in a bid to get its long-delayed Siri AI push onto smartphones.

We’re expecting Apple to fulfil its AI-heavy Siri revamp with iOS 26.4 early next year, some time in March or April. However, it might be bringing in outside help in order to do so.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who has a strong track record with Apple reporting, Apple “will lean on Google’s Gemini model” when it rolls out its grand vision for a smarter Siri.

It’s claimed that Apple will essentially pay Google for a custom version of Gemini that runs on its own private servers, supplying Siri with smarter responses.

Gemini’s hidden influence

There’s a very real chance that most people will never know that Google is supplying the brains for Siri’s queries, with neither Apple nor Google venturing forward with the information.

This should also mean that Siri won’t be flooded by Google services or Gemini features. It’ll just be ticking away in the background, while all of your direct interaction will be mediated by Apple itself.

Another interesting claim is that Apple pitched Gemini up against Anthropic to see which had the most impressive model for the job, and actually found the latter to be the winner. However, the company’s pre-existing relationship with Google meant that Gemini was the sounder option from a purely financial perspective.

Whatever the case, this has been an embarrassing failure on Apple’s part. It first announced that a new smarter Siri would be coming soon after the launch of iOS 18, while such AI features formed a core part of Apple’s pitch for the iPhone 16 in late 2024.