I won’t reprise the sad story of how Apple went from being at the forefront of AI technology with the launch of Siri in 2011 to being hopelessly left behind in 2025.
The company’s current approach appears to be to retain the Siri branding for simpler tasks, while using Apple Intelligence for the shiny new things – but there’s now an obvious problem with this …
Most of those shiny new things haven’t actually materialized. The gap between what the company promised iPhone 16 buyers and what it has actually given them so far is huge. Again, no need to go over old ground – just the headlines tell the story:
- Apple pulls iPhone 16 ad over Apple Intelligence mishap
- Apple adds new disclaimer on its website advertising delayed AI Siri features
- Apple hit with lawsuit over ‘false advertising’ of Apple Intelligence features
- Siri has become an unmitigated disaster, and AI won’t save it
- Apple commenter John Gruber launches blistering attack on ‘rotten’ Apple over Siri vaporware
Indeed, things have reached the point where people are so fed up of waiting for Apple to fix things that a 9to5Mac poll revealed that the vast majority of readers would like the option of installing a third-party AI as their default iPhone assistant.
Apple long since burned the Siri brandname. It’s so embarrassingly dumb, and has been the butt of so many jokes, that it’s now irredeemable. The iPhone maker seemed to acknowledge this when it announced the Apple Intelligence branding for the new features, but there are two problems here.
First, Apple Intelligence was always a dumb name, being too long and clunky to use in full, and stupidly abbreviating to … AI! How that got past the first round of reviews is utterly beyond me.
Second, all of the mess of the fanfare launch followed by back-tracking and delay means that the Apple Intelligence brand has also been pretty badly tarnished.
Top comment by Blurft
I agree with all of the criticism Ben laws out here, but I actually think a new name would be a bad idea for Apple here.
Apple launched Siri...and let it wallow. Now "Siri" means "under-delivering." Apple launched Apple Intelligence to move past that reputation...and failed to deliver. Now "Apple Intelligence" also means "under-delivering."
Coming up with another new name would just seem desperate. Fool me once, fool me twice, but fool me thrice?
Instead, I think Apple just needs to commit to just fixing what they already have.
The past 14 years have trained users that "Siri" means "iPhone Voice Assistant," and it would be a mess trying to change that common perception now.
"Apple Intelligence" should be dropped as an umbrella term that's being used to advertise a wildly-diverse range of features - some of which aren't even out yet! - and instead Apple should just refer to each individual feature by name, with "powered by Apple Intelligence" tacked on at the end. And they should only apply it to new features that are actually using some form of AI, being careful not to slap the label on any new thing (like battery-optimizing pattern recognition) and cheapening the term.
For both reasons, I’d argue that whenever Apple finally does launch its all-new intelligent assistant (what has so far been referred to as next-gen or all-new Siri), and it finally does do all the things the company has promised, it will be time to ditch both brands and give it an all-new name.
A fresh start, a fresh name, a fresh image.
It needs to be something which trips off the tongue as well as Siri – a nice friendly name – but bearing absolutely no resemblance to it. Suggestions in the comments, please …
Highlighted accessories
- Anker 511 Nano Pro ultra-compact iPhone charger
- Spigen MagFit case for iPhone 16e – adds MagSafe support
- Apple MagSafe Charger with 25w power for iPhone 16 models
- Apple 30W charger for above
- Anker 240W braided USB-C to USB-C cable
Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments