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Apple will highlight its AI strategy at Monday's WWDC 2025 keynote, with its much-talked-about "Liquid Glass" software redesign playing a secondary role in announcements, claims industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

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Reports leading up to WWDC have indicated that iOS 26 will feature a major design overhaul inspired by visionOS, the operating system for Apple's Vision Pro headset. The redesign has been described as the biggest update to iOS since iOS 7, and it will be the main focus of the event.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has even suggested that Apple will use the "Liquid Glass" redesign to distract from its failure to roll out promised Apple Intelligence features – like a more personalised, context-aware Siri, which was heavily promoted at last year's developer conference and in the months thereafter, but turned out to be vaporware since it did not work as advertised in internal testing.

However, in a last-minute "key points to watch at WWDC" post on X, Kuo has argued that above all at this year's event, Apple will make pains to explain how upcoming AI features will work on devices ("though no major breakthroughs are expected") and that the company will even offer a development timeline for their launch.

According to Kuo, Apple's on-device AI focus will "likely" include "rebranding Apple Intelligence/Siri," demonstrations of AI integration at the OS level to improve user experience, the rollout of tools for third-party developers to incorporate AI into their apps (which we're already expecting), and a strengthening of privacy protections.

Lastly, Kuo says Apple will tout partnerships with other AI service providers, similar to its current deal with OpenAI to leverage ChatGPT via Siri. This is probably an allusion to Apple's reported partnership with Google to make Gemini an optional Siri extension, with ‌Siri‌ able to hand requests over to Gemini for more in-depth AI-powered answers.

Move Over Siri?

Kuo's predictions raise some intriguing questions. The argument has been put forward that the Siri brand is tarnished, and introducing a new AI chatbot powered by large language models under a new brand would signify a clean break from the past. But if Apple were to rebrand Apple Intelligence/Siri, this could be interpreted as an implicit acknowledgement that its original AI strategy has failed.

There is also the danger that Siri is already indelibly intertwined with Apple Intelligence in the public consciousness. Given the amount of marketing that has been spent on Apple Intelligence, or "AI for the rest of us," as Apple calls it, it's fair to react to Kuo's claim about a rebranding with some skepticism.

If Apple does have plans to rebrand Siri to launch the AI chatbot it has been working on – said to be on par with recent ChatGPT models – then a new name and persona for the virtual assistant could potentially revitalize its image. But Apple would have to ensure that any new product lives up to its promises, otherwise another misstep could be potentially disastrous.

Either way, we'll learn more about Apple's plans very soon.

Apple's WWDC 2025 keynote will begin on Monday, June 9 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Apple will live stream the event on its website, on YouTube, and in the TV app. If you're not able to watch live, we'll have a live blog and coverage of the announcements here at MacRumors, plus we'll be live tweeting the event on the MacRumorsLive account.

Article Link: Could Apple Ditch Siri Name in Major AI Rebrand at WWDC?
 
Kuo says: "Apple’s AI strategy takes center stage, with updates like UI changes and OS improvements playing a secondary role."

This seems very much in opposition to Gurman's spoiler report which says it's all about the new UI and very little about Apple Intelligence...

Nervous but excited for the keynote. Really hope it's not a let down.
 
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If they were dropping the Siri branding, they should have done that last year. At this point, it's still a bit of a tumour that needs to be cut out, but I don't have faith in Apple to not just replace it with something bland and potentially more convoluted.
 
The Siri brand is only tarnished for people who have AI brainrot. Nobody outside of that sphere cares but whatever if they really want to dump an iconic brand thats become a big part of pop culture in favor of some nothing buzzword thing to please that crowd/investors (an effort that will likely end in mediocrity anyway), then have fun I guess.
 
Siri was a pioneer, it would be sad to see her go (despite me never using her🤣).

Would have been cool if they made some improvements and also added voice camera control, so you can say “siri, click the shutter” without having to click buttons. Would work like a voice remote, especially good for night photos
 
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I can totally see them scrapping the Siri name and going with something more “Apple Intelligence”. Heck, maybe they’ll have developed a system that lets you pick a unique name for your AI!

I’m a bit more dubious about them making AI the star of the show this year. If they show something off again but don’t have something real, and live demo-able, and ready to show off to real people in real-time, then they’re just going to make perceptions worse.
 
Siri is a tarnished brand. It's been the punchline to a joke in at least a decade.

Apple Intelligence was DoA and was a foolish way to try and co-opt the AI acronym by letting people know that 'our' AI is different...

...it's different alright in that it barely exists and is barely competent.

So yeah, time to quietly put Apple Intelligence as a thing out of its misery.

My bet:
To replace Siri:
Just go for 'Apple' or let users choose from a variety of names.

Yeah, Siri could be one of them for those.

Only do this when 'Siri' actually works.

Or better still, just let Gemini as our personal assistant. Humiliating for Apple but they're getting lapped.

And hey, the original iPhone had Google (and Yahoo) as the only 3rd party services, so there is precedent.


Apple Intelligence - 'powered by Apple AI' or just 'powered by AI'
 
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