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The head of the team developing the promised AI-enhanced Siri had to admit the recent decision to significantly delay the release gave Apple’s reputation a major black eye, according to a report published Friday.

Robby Walker, Apple’s senior director of Siri and information intelligence, reportedly called the delay “ugly” during a recent all-hands meeting with his team. He gave an update on how close Apple is to having the technology ready, but couldn’t promise when it will ship. At present, the “smarter” Siri reportedly still fails to work correctly a significant percentage of the time.

Where the hell is the AI-enhanced Siri?

Apple promised “the start of a new era for Siri” at WWDC24 last June, thanks to a hefty infusion of artificial intelligence. A glowing future for the voice assistant got laid out, with it very nearly being able to do anything the user themselves could do. All that would be necessary would be simple voice commands. “Send the photos from the barbecue on Saturday to Malia,” is an example the company used.

Executives committed to launching the smarter Siri in last year’s iOS 18, though it would be part of a later update, not the first version. They were expected this spring, but on March 7, the company had to admit, “It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.”

The admission set off a firestorm of criticism. As John Gruber from Daring Fireball pointed out, Apple’s promised “more personalized Siri” has yet to ever be demoed to anyone outside the company. That puts it in the category of vaporware.

Nevertheless, the company began advertising the future Apple Intelligence feature and urged people to buy the iPhone 16 series to take advantage of the AI-enhanced Siri. Walker pointed out during the meeting that advertising the feature, then delaying it, makes the situation very embarrassing.

“This was not one of these situations where we get to show people our plan after it’s done. We showed people before,” the executive said, according to Bloomberg.

It works most of the time

Although Apple still has yet to demonstrate the upcoming, AI-powered Siri, Walker did show it off to employees during the meeting.

“It was able to locate his driver’s license number on command and find specific photos of a child,” reports Bloomberg. “He also demonstrated how the technology could precisely manipulate apps via voice control. It embedded content in an email, added recipients and made other changes.”

But developers are still a long way away from finishing. Walker allegedly said the tech works correctly between 66% and 80% of the time.

The Apple executive also highlighted an additional challenge: The company can’t drop other projects to put more resources into the AI-enhanced Siri, even though it’s significantly delayed.

“We have other commitments across Apple to other projects,” Walker supposedly said.

So the executive in charge of Siri development couldn’t commit to a release date or even a window. “We’re going to ship these features and more as soon as they are ready,” he reportedly said.

No one’s getting the ax … at least not now

Walker said Apple execs — including AI chief John Giannandrea and software boss Craig Federighi — share “intense personal accountability” for the delay, according to Bloomberg. Long-time Apple watchers will surely argue that company co-founder Steve Jobs would fire people — like maybe Walker — in a similar situation. That’s apparently not happening under current CEO Tim Cook.

Walker instead defended his developers working on the AI-enhanced Siri project. He pointed out that they put their “hearts and souls into this thing,” and reportedly told them they should “feel really proud of the innovative work” they have done.

He finished the meeting by promising that Apple will create “the world’s greatest virtual assistant,” according to the Bloomberg report.