In his final earnings call as CEO of Apple, Tim Cook revealed that the company's highly anticipated Siri AI upgrade could include paywalled limits for heavy users. While Cook acknowledged that these plans are not final, he envisions users purchasing additional compute capacity for Siri AI through Apple's existing iCloud+ subscriptions, which already offer expanded cloud storage.
“We do believe there will be people that want to use [Siri AI] a lot, and so we will have some kind of upgrade possibilities on iCloud+, where people can buy up the stack on iCloud+, and we'll see how the pickup for that is,” Cook said on Thursday. “But we could not be more excited about where [Siri AI] is.”
This business model mirrors that of other AI providers like Anthropic and OpenAI, which offer limited free tiers with optional paid upgrades for increased usage.
Rollout and Leadership Transition
The revamped Siri AI is currently available in the iOS 27 beta and is slated for broader release this fall. As incoming CEO John Ternus, formerly Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, prepares to take the helm, he inherits a company at a pivotal juncture. Apple has lagged behind in AI assistant development, even resorting to licensing a custom Gemini model from Google to bolster Siri. The Siri AI overhaul faced such significant delays that Apple agreed to a $250 million settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit over its marketing of the iPhone 16's AI capabilities.
Supply Chain and Cost Pressures
Like other hardware manufacturers, Apple is also grappling with supply challenges stemming from the AI-driven RAM shortage, which has escalated production costs. This has prompted companies such as Meta, Samsung, Microsoft, and Sony to raise device prices. Apple increased the cost of Macs and iPads last month but has not yet adjusted iPhone pricing.
As Apple navigates these hurdles, the potential paywall for Siri AI represents a strategic move to monetize advanced features while managing infrastructure costs—a trend likely to shape the AI landscape in 2026 and beyond.
via TechCrunch AI