Apple has quietly assembled a new engineering group called Answers, Knowledge, and Information. The AKI team will focus on in-house AI services and a major overhaul of Siri. This initiative signals Apple’s attempt to boost Siri’s capabilities to rival leading chatbot and search experiences.
Apple is hiring experts in search algorithm design and engine development. These recruits will work alongside existing Siri engineers to build a powerful large-language-model engine. The goal is to give Siri deeper contextual awareness and more conversational responses.
The AKI team reports to John Giannandrea, Apple’s head of machine learning. Robby Walker leads the new group. Siri product lead Mike Rockwell will oversee the integration of AKI work into Siri and related features such as Spotlight.
A New Siri Experience in 2026
Industry insiders expect this revamped Siri to appear in the first half of 2026. The updated assistant will support richer follow-up questions and deeper knowledge queries. Apple plans to blend the new engine with its existing “app intent” technology to let Siri trigger actions inside apps.
There are sources that indicate that Apple will present a new standalone app called Knowledge. The service would provide conversational AI bots that were always available in the form of ChatGPT-like chatbots. It could be accessed by a permanent interface or frequent message queries in Messages and other programs.
In-House vs. Third-Party Models
Apple has also investigated solidifying the relationships with AI startups like Anthropic and OpenAI. It can utilize the models that the company may license or translate as it develops its own LLM engine. On-premise solution would guarantee better integration in the Apple ecosystem and privacy. The move toward on-device AI computing by Apple means that the Siri and Knowledge functions will be able to run effectively without the compromise of personal data. It also needs to stress that every individual request will not be decrypted and will be personal.
User Benefits and Expectations
Once live, users can expect to ask Siri complex questions such as “Summarize my latest meeting notes” or “Plan a trip itinerary based on my calendar.” Siri will pull from emails, documents, and web sources to craft personalized answers.
It is great work to build a scale-out LLM engine reliably. There should be safety filters, high responsiveness, accuracy, and minimal latency on the devices that Apple must sustain. Historical hiccups on Siri and Apple Intelligence point to the fact that the company is not very keen on releasing the features prior to them being of high quality. The move by Apple follows Google experimenting with its own Bard-based search and Microsoft rolling out the Copilot into its Bing search. Amazon is also boosting the capabilities of Alexa. Apple hopes to stay relevant in a very crowded landscape by doubling down on its own AI research and making Siri all the better