Apple’s next-generation Siri, a complete reimagining of its voice assistant powered by on-device AI, will arrive as a beta later in 2026. But even then, it will only run on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model. For millions of EU users, the situation is worse: Siri AI will be completely absent from iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches at launch with no timeline for a fix.
The company revealed the new assistant, along with a raft of other iOS 27 features, at its WWDC26 developer conference. The iOS 27 developer beta is already in testing—beta 3 landed on July 6—but the full Siri AI experience won’t be public until sometime after the final OS release. Apple is calling it a beta feature, implying that polish and reliability are still works in progress.
Siri AI: Not an update, a reboot
Apple isn’t simply adding generative AI tricks to the existing Siri. The new Siri AI is built on the next generation of Apple Intelligence, a system that promises to understand personal context across your messages, email, photos, calendar, and other data. When you ask a question, it can search through your own content and take actions across apps—like pulling up a document mentioned in an old message or adding an event from an email to your calendar.
A dedicated Siri app will preserve your conversation history and sync it through iCloud across all your Apple devices. Siri AI can also interpret what’s on your screen and answer questions about web content. Apple’s vision is an assistant that behaves less like a rigid command-parser and more like a system-level agent, similar to the direction Microsoft and Google are taking with their AI tools.
But that vision comes with caveats. Some image-generation features will have daily usage limits because they rely on server-side processing. Not everything runs locally, despite Apple’s emphasis on privacy. And the beta label means early adopters should expect hiccups.
Hardware and regional restrictions: Who’s in, who’s out
The device support list is short. To use Siri AI on an iPhone, you’ll need:
- iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, or iPhone 16 Pro Max
- iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max
Older iPhones—even models that can run iOS 27—won’t get the new assistant. That includes the standard iPhone 15, iPhone 14 series, and earlier. iPads and Macs will have their own SOC requirements, but Apple hasn’t detailed those yet.
Region restrictions cut even deeper. Citing the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple said Siri AI “will not be available on iPhone or iPad” and Apple Watch in the EU when iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 ship later this year. The company published an unusually blunt press release on June 19, explaining that EU regulators rejected all of its proposed compromises. In China, the feature is also blocked while Apple negotiates regulatory approvals.
There is a sliver of good news: Siri AI will work on macOS 27 and visionOS 27 in the EU, so Mac and Vision Pro users there aren’t completely shut out. But iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch users are left with the old Siri.
The DMA fight: Why Europe is blocked
Apple’s argument centers on what it calls an “extreme interpretation” of the DMA. According to the company, EU regulators demand that as soon as Siri AI launches, any virtual assistant must be granted “nearly unlimited access” to a user’s device and the ability to act autonomously—reading messages, making purchases, accessing files, and controlling apps without ongoing user oversight.
Apple says security researchers have already demonstrated that AI systems can be hijacked to steal passwords, photos, and alter settings without consent. To mitigate that, Apple proposed a “Trusted System Agent” that would act as a secure intermediary, allowing third-party assistants to offer similar capabilities while maintaining safety. The European Commission flatly refused, along with every other proposal Apple put forward, including a phased rollout over 18 months.
For now, the company has no timeline for EU availability on iOS and iPadOS. It’s a stark departure from the previous playbook where DMA compliance meant tweaking app stores or interconnectivity rules. This time, the fight is over the core AI plumbing of the device—and the impasse could last indefinitely.
What Windows users and IT admins need to know
For anyone managing mixed-device environments—Windows PCs alongside corporate iPhones—the Siri AI rollout has direct consequences. First, device refresh cycles are about to get more complicated. An organization that would normally keep an iPhone 14 for 4–5 years now faces a hard feature cliff: without iPhone 15 Pro or newer, employees won’t get the advanced AI features that will increasingly differentiate the iOS experience.
Second, the EU exclusion means that multinational companies with offices in Europe will have to support two classes of iPhone: AI-enabled devices for non-EU regions and AI-less ones for EU countries. This could fragment training, support, and app development if internal tools lean on Siri AI actions.
Third, the broader iOS 27 update brings other changes that admins should track: redesigned Lock Screen, larger widgets, a “Liquid Glass” interface, camera enhancements, natural-language Shortcuts creation, and performance boosts (Apple’s internal testing boasts up to 30% faster app launches, 70% faster photo loading, and 80% faster AirDrop transfers, though these numbers are pre-release). Those features will roll out to a wider set of devices, but the AI gap will become the most visible sign of a phone’s age.
What to do now: Upgrade, wait, or switch?
If you’re an individual user with an iPhone 15 Pro or a new iPhone 16, you’ll get the Siri AI beta once Apple flips the switch—likely alongside the public iOS 27 release later this year. Be prepared for a rough beta: even if the core assistant works, the server-dependent image features may hit daily caps. Switching your device language to English may be necessary for the initial beta.
If you own an older iPhone and care about AI assistance, your path is a hardware upgrade. The iPhone 16 series starts at $799, and you’ll want at least 256GB if you plan to keep the device for several years. The iPhone 15 Pro models, while still available, are now a generation behind in chip architecture.
EU iPhone users face a harder choice. With no timeline, buying a new iPhone today on the assumption that Siri AI will eventually arrive is a gamble. The same AI features might appear on Android devices or Windows with Copilot, making platform switching worth considering for the most eager early adopters. But for most people, the practical impact may be limited: many day-to-day tasks will still work with the old Siri, and many EU users never relied heavily on Siri to begin with.
IT admins should inventory device models immediately and map out an upgrade schedule that prioritizes business units where AI features would have the biggest impact. If your organization has EU offices, start talking to legal teams about the DMA implications for internal tools that could integrate with Siri AI on Macs—the only platform where it will be available in the region.
Outlook: A fractured rollout and a regulatory standoff
The Siri AI launch will be anything but smooth. Device restrictions, regional blocks, and a public beta phase mean that even on launch day, many iOS 27 users won’t experience the marquee feature. Apple is betting that the AI push will drive a massive upgrade cycle, but the DMA deadlock introduces real friction in one of its largest markets.
Watch for two developments: first, whether EU regulators soften their stance as other assistants—like Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini—seek similar system-level access; second, how quickly Apple can improve Siri AI’s reliability once it’s in the hands of millions. An unreliable beta risks cementing a reputation Siri has carried for years: a promise that never quite delivers. For Windows users living in Apple’s ecosystem, the next 12 months will redefine what they expect from a phone—and whether they’re willing to pay for it.