Bloomberg News reported on Feb. 14 that Apple was struggling to finish the new capabilities, which were first touted last June at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference. At the time, the company was aiming for a May debut, a postponement from earlier plans, people familiar with the situation said.

It's now being reported that Apple Inc. has confirmed that it’s delaying the release of a new AI-infused Siri digital assistant, saying the company now expects to roll out the software sometime "in the coming year."

The effort will give Siri “more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps,” the iPhone maker said in a statement. "It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features."

The new capabilities include Personal Context, a feature that lets Siri tap into user data to help with queries, and App Intents, a mechanism for more precisely controlling applications and features across Apple’s operating systems.

Apple has been working on a further-out, more advanced version of Siri as well, Bloomberg News has reported. But that software, which would provide a more conversational experience, has been been running into its own delays. The overhaul was once eyed for 2026 but now may not arrive until 2027.

The slow pace threatens to put Apple further behind Amazon.com Inc. in the voice assistant market. That company will begin rolling out its highly anticipated Alexa+ this month.