Apple is killing Siri. Not the name—the interface. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that iOS 27, expected this fall, will replace the assistant we've tolerated since 2011 with a proper chatbot experience. Code-named Campos, it's Apple's first true conversational AI—and it sounds a lot like the "bolt-on chatbot" they publicly dismissed just months ago.
Here's the twist: Apple spent years insisting they wouldn't do this. They positioned themselves as the thoughtful alternative to ChatGPT's chaos, the company that wouldn't slap AI onto everything without purpose. And yet, here we are. Siri is getting the ChatGPT treatment—conversational, contextual, and deeply integrated across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
The announcement is expected at WWDC in June. The release? September, alongside the annual OS updates. For those keeping score, that's after the spring iOS 26 update, which will merely improve existing Siri using Google's Gemini models. iOS 27 is the real overhaul.
The current Siri is transactional: you ask, it answers (sometimes), the session ends. The new version is conversational: you chat, it remembers, context persists. Text and voice inputs will coexist seamlessly. You'll be able to search the web, generate images, summarize documents, analyze uploaded files, and—critically—access your personal data to complete tasks.
That last part matters. Apple isn't granting this level of system access to external chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini. Campos will be native, embedded, and empowered to reach into Mail, Photos, Music, Podcasts, Calendar, even Xcode. Gurman's examples: ask Siri to find a photo based on a description, then crop and color-correct it. Or draft an email about your upcoming calendar plans without leaving the Mail app.
This is the AI integration strategy Apple should have shipped two years ago. Instead, they're playing catch-up while pretending it was always the plan.
Why now? Because Apple is late, and they know it. OpenAI's ChatGPT has normalized conversational AI. Google's Gemini powers everything from Search to Pixel devices. Even Meta is embedding Llama across its ecosystem. Apple's reluctance to "bolt on" a chatbot was principled—until the market decided chatbots are the interface.
For marketers and growth teams, this shift is significant. Apple's installed base is enormous: over 1.5 billion active iPhones. When Campos launches, it won't be a niche feature—it'll be the default AI assistant for a substantial portion of the consumer internet. That means voice and text-based brand interactions at scale, personalized to user data in ways third-party chatbots can't access.
Consider the implications for customer experience design. If users can seamlessly search, summarize, create, and execute tasks without leaving Apple's ecosystem, where does that leave your app? Your website? Your carefully optimized funnel? You'll need to think about discoverability and integration within this new environment—or risk becoming invisible.
Apple is betting that a native, deeply integrated chatbot can outcompete external alternatives through sheer convenience and privacy positioning. They're probably right. Most users won't care about the technical superiority of ChatGPT if Siri does "good enough" without leaving their phone.
But there's a darker reading here: Apple publicly rejected the chatbot model, then quietly built one when competitive pressure mounted. That's not strategic patience—it's reactive strategy dressed up as intentionality. The spring iOS 26 update using Gemini models? That's a bridge. A stopgap. The real play arrives in iOS 27.
For businesses, the lesson is clear: the AI interface wars are intensifying, and the winners will be platforms that control the OS layer. If you're building on third-party AI tools, you're renting space on someone else's infrastructure. That's fine—until it isn't.
The companies that thrive in this environment will be those who treat AI as a strategic layer, not a feature checklist. That means understanding which capabilities to build, which to license, and which to ignore entirely.
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