Apple used its WWDC 2026 developers conference to try to show it can catch up in the artificial intelligence race after a year of criticism and delays versus OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. The company unveiled Siri AI, a new version of its long-running voice assistant, but the market response was cautious. According to Ynet, Apple shares fell about 1.9% after the event and then slid another 2% the next day.
The decline reflected investor doubts that Apple Intelligence can become a major growth engine. Apple says Siri AI will be a significant upgrade, able to understand personal context from data on the device, analyze messages, calls and calendar events, and suggest tailored answers and actions.
Unlike ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, which emphasize powerful models and advanced conversation, Apple is positioning its AI as useful and quiet, something that works in the background, fits into the operating system and does not force users to change habits. But the report said Apple is also leaning on outside technology.
AFM Cloud Pro was developed with Google’s technological help, and some cloud processing will be done with Nvidia chips. That approach lets Apple avoid massive spending on its own AI infrastructure and focus on user experience, but it also raises questions about whether it can compete long term with companies building huge independent AI systems.
Apple’s biggest challenge is reputational as well as technical. At WWDC 2025, some AI features were shown but later delayed or dropped, so this time investors want execution rather than impressive demos. If Siri AI delivers, Apple could leverage more than 2 billion active devices worldwide and make AI a natural part of iPhone, iPad and Mac use. For now, Wall Street is waiting to see the product work in the real world before giving Apple full credit for rejoining the center of the AI race.
