Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has confirmed that its highly anticipated Siri upgrade, including AI-powered personalization and contextual awareness, has been delayed and will roll out later than expected.

What Happened: On Friday, an Apple spokesperson Jacqueline Roy confirmed the delay in a statement to Daring Fireball.

"We've also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. 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," Roy stated.

See Also: Apple Challenges UK’s ‘Backdoor’ Order In Landmark Legal Case After Trump Compares Directive To China-Style Surveillance: Report

Why It's Important: Apple originally promised at WWDC 2023 that the upgraded Siri would launch over the next year. The new features were expected this spring, but internal testing revealed significant issues.

According to Bloomberg columnist Mark Gurman, Apple executives, including Craig Federighi, expressed concerns that the features didn't work properly in testing.

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Some within Apple's AI division reportedly fear the work may need to be scrapped and rebuilt from scratch.

This setback comes as Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) aggressively expand their AI-powered voice assistants.

With AI assistants becoming a major battleground, Apple risks falling behind if it cannot deliver a more intelligent, conversational Siri--which, according to Gurman, may not arrive until iOS 20 at best.

Price Action: Apple’s stock closed at $239.07 on Friday, rising 1.54%. However, it dipped 0.18% in after-hours trading. Year to date, AAPL is down 1.96%, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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