Siri is about to stop waiting to be asked. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple chief executive John Ternus has told software chief Craig Federighi to speed up Apple’s AI roadmap and turn Siri into an assistant that works like an agent — software that follows a goal and keeps working on it without the user starting every step.
Gurman reported the push in his Power On newsletter on Sunday, November 8, 2026, saying Ternus raised the issue with Federighi in a closed-door meeting in recent weeks. Gurman added that he believes Apple could make Siri “more like an agent” as early as next year. Apple has not confirmed the report or announced any timeline for an agentic Siri.
Key Takeaways
- Apple’s CEO wants an agentic Siri — Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports John Ternus pressed Craig Federighi to accelerate the Siri roadmap beyond routine upgrades.
- An agent, not just an assistant — the goal is a Siri that tracks goals and carries out multi-step tasks on its own, like OpenAI’s Dots, Meta’s Muse and xAI’s Grok.
- First step lands in December — iOS 27.3 is expected to give Siri fine-grained control of Apple’s own apps, such as cropping photos and organising Safari tabs.
- Third-party actions follow in spring 2027 — Siri could then book an OpenTable reservation or place a Grubhub order by itself.
- Gurman’s estimate, not Apple’s promise — a fully agentic Siri “as early as 2027” is his forecast; Apple has confirmed nothing, and some coverage urges caution.
What “Agentic” Actually Means
Today’s Siri is, in Ternus’s own words from Apple’s November 2 earnings call, “primarily request-based” — you ask, it answers, and the conversation ends there. An agentic assistant works differently: you give it a goal, and it keeps going — checking options, making choices and completing steps across apps until the job is done.
That is the bar OpenAI’s Dots, Meta’s Muse and xAI’s Grok are already aiming at, and Gurman says Apple wants Siri to match them. In practice it would mean asking Siri to sort out dinner and having it find a restaurant, book the table and arrange the ride — instead of opening three apps yourself.
The Roadmap: December, Spring, Then 2027
The report describes a staged rollout rather than one big launch:
- iOS 27.3 (December 2026): Siri gains finer control over Apple’s first-party apps. The examples Gurman cites are cropping and rotating images in Photos and organising tabs in Safari. The iOS 27.3 developer beta, seeded November 3, already shows Siri acting inside Mail, Safari, Files and more — unsubscribing from mailing lists, closing duplicate tabs and tidying up old files.
- Spring 2027: Siri opens up to third-party apps. The Verge reports this update would let Siri complete tasks such as booking a table on OpenTable or ordering food through Grubhub.
- 2027: the bigger prize — a Siri that works as a genuine agent, tracking goals in the background. Gurman puts this as early as next year, but stresses it is his own belief, not an Apple announcement.
Apple has also changed how it builds the software to get there faster: Gurman reports the company altered its engineering cycles for iOS 28 and macOS 28 to focus on coding and proactive AI features, with iOS 28 expected in beta in June 2027 and released in September.
Why Ternus Is Pushing Now
The push is one of Ternus’s first visible interventions since he succeeded Tim Cook as chief executive on September 1, 2026. On Apple’s November 2 earnings call — his first as CEO — he praised Siri AI but was candid that it is still request-based. The message to Federighi, according to Gurman, was to move beyond routine Siri improvements and aim at the agent race directly.
There is also an irony Apple itself flagged days earlier. In its annual report filed November 3, Apple warned investors that AI agents “may take actions that were not authorized,” including “resisting instructions.” The company wants Siri to act on its own — while publicly warning that agents acting on their own is a risk it has to manage.
And there is reason to treat the timeline carefully. AppleInsider, covering the same report, noted the account contradicts itself in places and should be taken with a grain of salt. Gurman’s 2027 date is an estimate, and Apple has a long record of shipping its Siri upgrades later than first reported — the personalised Siri itself arrived years after it was first promised.
Where Siri Stands Today
The agentic push builds on a Siri that only recently became useful again. Siri AI launched in beta with iOS 27 on September 14, 2026, and on November 3 Apple opened a developer preview letting any developer plug their app into Siri through App Intents. Under the hood, the next generation of Apple Foundation Models is built on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology under the multi-year partnership Apple and Google confirmed on January 12, 2026.
So the pieces are falling into place: a Siri that can act inside apps, a developer system for third-party actions, and Google-powered models underneath. What Ternus is reportedly demanding is speed — turning those pieces into an assistant that does things, not just answers questions.
The Bottom Line
Apple’s CEO wants Siri to stop being a voice that answers and start being an agent that acts — and he wants it fast enough to catch OpenAI and Meta. The first steps are dated: first-party app control in iOS 27.3 this December, third-party actions in spring 2027. The full agentic Siri is a forecast for 2027, not a promise. If Gurman’s reporting is right, the next year is when we find out whether Apple can finally close the AI gap it has spent two years admitting it has.
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FAQ
Q: What is an agentic Siri?
A: An agentic Siri would be an assistant that follows a goal and keeps working on it across apps without the user starting every step — for example, booking a restaurant table or ordering food on its own — instead of only answering one request at a time.
Q: When could an agentic Siri arrive?
A: Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman believes Apple could make Siri more like an agent as early as 2027. That is his estimate, not an Apple announcement — Apple has confirmed no timeline.
Q: What will Siri be able to do in iOS 27.3?
A: iOS 27.3, expected in December 2026, should give Siri fine-grained control of Apple’s own apps, such as cropping images in Photos, organising Safari tabs, unsubscribing in Mail and tidying files.
Q: What third-party actions are planned for spring 2027?
A: Siri is expected to gain actions inside third-party apps, such as booking a table on OpenTable or placing a food order through Grubhub, according to The Verge’s coverage of Gurman’s report.
Q: Has Apple confirmed the agentic Siri plan?
A: No. The report rests on unnamed sources, Apple has announced nothing about an agentic Siri, and some coverage has urged caution about the report’s details.
