Apple's new Siri AI impresses, then loses out to Claude
A Wired columnist spent a month running the developer beta of Apple's rebuilt Siri AI in iOS 27, starting with it as a tour guide around San Francisco and coming away convinced it could become an everything tool on the iPhone. The redesigned chatbot-style app felt sleek and distinctly Apple. Its biggest strength turned out to be personal context: because it indexes the contents of the phone, finding an old text message or photo became far easier than before. Over the following weeks her use of it tapered off anyway. She stresses the new Siri really is better, which is what made her cooling on it feel strange even to her. It settled into being, in her words, essentially the search bar for the phone rather than a tool she sought out. By the end of summer she found herself back to manually typing and swiping, doomscrolling Instagram and making aimless Yelp searches, and already leaning on Anthropic's Claude as a chatbot on her phone instead. She frames her own experience as a possible outlier: other beta testers, she notes, are still using the assistant heavily. Mobile-industry analysts quoted in the piece expect the redesign to land fine with ordinary users regardless of what power users think. Dipanjan Chatterjee of Forrester argues that Siri will take criticism for lagging peers but that this will not push the broader iPhone base to switch. Ramon Llamas of the International Data Corporation points to Apple's reputation for data privacy as a reason users who distrusted other AI tools might give the new Siri a chance. Avi Greengart of Techsponential describes the opposite trajectory from the author's: after early skepticism about Siri, the latest beta has him using it more, for more tasks, citing faster retrieval of information buried on the phone, notably better world knowledge, and improved dictation. The piece also flags a separate group of iPhone owners who may avoid the new Siri altogether out of moral objection or general distrust of AI, a backlash the writer says feature improvements are unlikely to fix.
Key facts
- The Wired writer tested Apple's overhauled Siri AI in the iOS 27 developer beta for about a month, initially using it as a San Francisco tour guide.
- Its strongest feature was personal-context search: indexing the phone's contents made finding old texts and photos far easier than before.
- Despite finding the new Siri genuinely improved, her usage tapered off and she drifted back to Anthropic's Claude, which she already used on her phone.
- Forrester's Dipanjan Chatterjee and IDC's Ramon Llamas argue most everyday iPhone users will stick with Siri regardless of criticism, partly on Apple's privacy reputation.
- Techsponential's Avi Greengart reports the opposite experience: heavier Siri use thanks to better on-device search, world knowledge and dictation.
Why it matters
Siri's iOS 27 overhaul is Apple's attempt to turn its assistant into a genuine AI competitor by leaning on something rivals cannot easily match: direct, private access to everything already on the phone. This piece is a rare real-world data point on whether that advantage translates into habits, from someone who tested it daily for a month rather than reading a feature list.
Who it affects
iPhone owners weighing whether to lean on the redesigned Siri, and anyone tracking how Apple's assistant fares against chatbot apps like Claude that people already have installed on the same device.
How to use it
The described strength is searching the phone itself: old text messages and photos surfaced faster than with any other method the writer tried, and the app's chatbot-style interface is built for that kind of query. The piece is a personal account rather than a walkthrough, so it does not cover setup, availability or pricing.
How solid is it
The account rests on one person's month of daily use plus three named analysts' predictions, not on usage data or a controlled comparison. The writer explicitly flags her own experience as a possible outlier, noting that other beta testers are still using the assistant heavily, and Techsponential's Avi Greengart reports the opposite trend: rising use driven by faster on-device search and better dictation.
Risks and caveats
A single columnist's habits do not establish how Siri AI performs broadly, and the piece itself says so. It also notes a separate segment of iPhone owners who may reject the new Siri outright over moral objections or general distrust of AI, a backlash the writer says better features are unlikely to overcome. No comparison of Siri AI's technical capabilities against Claude is offered beyond the writer's own switch back to the latter app.
“But with the latest beta software, I'm finding myself not only using it more, but for more things: Siri is now able to find information buried on my phone faster and more efficiently than any other method, its world knowledge is vastly better than before, and even dictation works better.”
— Avi Greengart, founder and lead analyst at Techsponential