Apple turns to Google’s Gemini to power long-awaited Siri revamp

Apple’s long-anticipated Siri overhaul may be powered by Google’s Gemini, marking a deepening collaboration between the two tech giants, according to a new Bloomberg report. The move comes as Apple works to revitalise its voice assistant and introduce new AI-powered capabilities, including an advanced AI web search feature that also leverages Gemini.

Earlier this year, Apple reportedly held an internal “bake-off” between Anthropic’s Claude models and Google’s Gemini to determine which technology would underpin its next-generation AI tools. While the company is said to have found Anthropic’s models technically superior, Gemini reportedly offered better financial terms.

Apple already maintains a longstanding search partnership with Google, under which the Gemini developer pays Apple to make Google Search the default engine on iPhones. The new arrangement will reportedly see Apple paying Google to build a custom Gemini-based model that operates on Apple’s private cloud infrastructure — a move aimed at maintaining strict user privacy standards.

Sources familiar with the project said that incorporating Gemini will not result in iPhones being “flooded” with Android-style AI features. Instead, Siri will be enhanced with context-aware, intelligent capabilities delivered through an Apple-designed interface, ensuring the user experience remains consistent with the brand’s ecosystem.

The company is expected to launch the redesigned Siri in March 2026, alongside new smart home products.

The revamp was first teased during Apple’s WWDC 2024 conference, where the company showcased Siri’s future abilities — including on-screen awareness, personal context understanding, and cross-app actions — designed to make the assistant a true “hands-free” controller for the iPhone.

However, progress on the upgrade has reportedly stalled, leaving Siri increasingly reliant on ChatGPT integration for complex user queries. The assistant now faces mounting competition from newer AI-driven voice assistants and startups developing more adaptive conversational tools.

The partnership with Google’s Gemini could therefore represent Apple’s most significant step yet in bringing cutting-edge AI functionality directly to its devices while maintaining its hallmark focus on privacy and ecosystem consistency.