After waiting years for Siri AI to arrive, I still find myself turning to other AI tools to get things done. Here are my honest thoughts on why.
Before I explore the why, I do think Siri AI is a vast improvement on what we’ve had before, and I understand it has brought a lot of useful updates to the iPhone from a productivity perspective. But I’m exploring why I’m not using it as much as I thought I would, and maybe you’re feeling the same.
Siri finally got smart
A huge part of WWDC was about introducing us to the new Siri, and in true Apple style they delivered a stunning presentation of the new assistant in action. The way you can access it from the Dynamic Island on iPhone, and its visual representation, is so creative. You can now type and talk to it and have natural conversations with multiple requests in one conversation. You can write with it from anywhere across the operating system and take action thanks to its on-screen awareness. It can search your emails in Apple Mail and find things across apps like Photos. Conversations are also kept in a dedicated app that you can access from your Home Screen or App Library. There’s more it can do too, like create shortcuts, make phone calls, compose and send texts, and more.
Why am I still opening ChatGPT?
I expected Siri AI to become my new default AI tool. I even switched my email client to Apple Mail in preparation for the release, as I was ready to go all in on Apple’s AI answer. I thought that because it was using Google’s models, it would be a good choice for my everyday AI requests. But it hasn’t been. I feel as though I’m able to get quicker and better responses to the questions I ask elsewhere. I also like that these AI tools know me and often refer back to their memory. I’ve yet to see Siri do this.
Not all AI is doing the same job
A lot of this comes down to AI doing different things. Siri AI is good for performing actions on your iPhone. Being able to quickly create a calendar event with your voice or ask it to draft a note is ideal, particularly if you use Apple’s default apps.
However, other AI tools do different things. Claude can help in the writing space. Gemini can give comprehensive answers to questions, backed by Google. ChatGPT is a well-balanced all-rounder and tends to generate the best images.
Siri is an assistant. These feel like collaborators.
It’s interesting when you want to ask a quick question about something. This is something I’d love to do on Siri AI, but the conversation flows better and quicker with tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. While I love the animation for Siri, I think the app needs a lot of work to bring it up to the level of the others. I do appreciate that Siri AI is new, though, and I look forward to future enhancements.
The context problem
Siri doesn’t have a built-in memory profile. Instead, it uses the personal context of your device. This is useful, but if you want it to remember a conversation you’ve had with it before, it can’t, as it doesn’t build up a memory profile. All of the other tools mentioned in this post are aware of previous conversations and can pull from them to support future discussions. This is a vital feature and is probably one of the main reasons I continue to opt for third-party services.
Convenience doesn’t beat habit
I wish it did, but having Siri AI accessible at the press of a button or a word command hasn’t made it my first choice. Along with other reasons, I still go back to the other tools depending on what I need. I actually have widgets set up on my phone for all the AI tools, so to be honest they’re still pretty easy to access. I also know you can enable ChatGPT responses in Siri, but you still get responses in the same pop-up interface, which doesn’t work well for everything you’re asking.
My AI toolbox
I do still like Siri AI and it’s promising so far. It may introduce memory and improve its app features in future releases, but I guess that depends on whether Apple wants to stay a personal context assistant or become more than that.
This is how I currently use each of the tools:
Siri AI – quick requests, like adding things to my calendar
ChatGPT – thinking things through and ongoing conversations
Claude – writing and working through ideas
Gemini – thorough answers that take advantage of the Google ecosystem
Remember, I blog, so I may use AI differently to you.
Apple has the distribution. Does it have the preference?
Apple has over a billion iPhone users across the world. This gives it a huge platform to develop Siri AI further and make it a default choice, but that depends on whether it wants to. Apple’s approach of using personal context might be enough for the company’s strategy, or maybe it will update the assistant year on year, continuously making it better.
Maybe Siri doesn’t replace them?
Rather than replacing other AI tools, Siri might simply complement them. There will still be users who are cautious of AI, and thanks to Apple’s privacy approach, it can give people a way to take automated actions. A lot of people will be more comfortable with Apple looking through their phone content than permitting access by third-party apps.
So has Siri changed how I use AI?
It hasn’t. Well, not yet anyway. It’s definitely more useful than it was, and it works well across the operating system. For me it’s more of a convenience right now, and I don’t feel as though I rely on it day to day. I don’t use the writing tools yet, so I’ll try them out and do another post soon about what I think. I do get Claude to proofread for me, though, so it will need to be pretty good for me to run to Siri.
Thanks,
Chris