Apple's Siri Expansion Could Change What Makes Business Apps Valuable

Apple's Siri AI expansion introduces new ways for third-party applications to expose their functions to Siri, allowing the assistant to perform more tasks on users' behalf and potentially changing how software is developed, accessed, and used.

Apple is expanding Siri's ability to work with third-party applications through a new developer preview, introducing tools that could allow its AI assistant to find information and complete tasks across apps. The changes could alter how developers design software and how businesses reach customers who increasingly rely on AI assistants to get things done.

On November 3, Apple introduced a developer preview extending its App Intents framework with custom actions, improved content discovery, and skills that can combine multiple actions into a single experience. These capabilities could allow consumers to complete more tasks through Siri without navigating individual applications themselves.

The announcement comes as Apple reportedly considers a more autonomous version of Siri. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is exploring capabilities that would allow the assistant to pursue ongoing goals rather than relying entirely on individual requests.

For developers, the emerging challenge is designing applications that AI assistants can discover and operate effectively. For businesses, it raises questions about maintaining customer relationships when interactions increasingly happen through an assistant rather than directly inside an application.

As AI assistants become more capable of performing tasks across software, developers may need to make their applications more accessible to AI-driven workflows, while businesses reconsider how they attract, serve, and retain customers. The extent of those changes will depend on how widely these capabilities are adopted and how much control assistants ultimately gain over everyday tasks.

A customer checking on a delivery might normally open an application, locate an order, and navigate to its tracking information. With Apple's expanded Siri integrations, that same customer could ask the assistant for an update and have Siri retrieve the information directly from a supported app.

Making that interaction possible requires applications to share certain information and functions with Siri. Apple's App Intents framework provides that connection, allowing developers to define what their software can do and what information the assistant can access. The November 3 developer preview expands those capabilities to include custom actions and skills that combine multiple steps into a single experience.

For now, the new third-party integrations remain in development. Apple introduced the preview alongside its November operating-system betas, giving developers an opportunity to build and test integrations before they become more widely available. The company expects the capabilities to begin reaching customers in the coming months, with App Store submissions opening in spring 2027.

Apple has also acknowledged the possibility of expanding Siri beyond individual requests. During its November 2 earnings call, CEO John Ternus described Siri AI as primarily request-based but said its underlying architecture gives Apple room to expand its capabilities over time. He also emphasized the importance of protecting user privacy and security as AI agents become more capable.

That potential direction gained further attention on November 8, when Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple wants Siri to become more autonomous. According to Gurman, the company is exploring an assistant capable of pursuing ongoing objectives without requiring users to initiate every step. He believes Apple could move in that direction as early as 2027, although the company has not announced those capabilities or committed to a release date.

The difference becomes clearer when considering the delivery example. Checking an order when a customer asks is a defined task. Continuously monitoring that delivery, recognizing a delay, and determining whether another action is needed would require a greater degree of autonomy.

Both scenarios depend on applications making their information and functions accessible to Siri. As assistants take on more responsibility for completing tasks, developers face a practical challenge: ensuring their software can communicate what an AI assistant needs to know and do, even when the customer never opens the application.

For years, developers have designed applications around the assumption that people will open them, navigate their screens, and select the features they want to use. Buttons, menus, and search bars make those interactions possible. But what happens when a customer asks an AI assistant to complete the same task without opening the app?

Developers may increasingly need to account for two ways people use their software: interacting with an application directly and allowing an AI assistant to perform actions on their behalf. That means some functions traditionally accessed through a screen must also be understandable and accessible to another software system.

Consider a messaging application. A customer might ask Siri to send a message to a particular contact without opening the app. For that to work, Siri needs to identify the recipient, understand the message, and know which application function can send it. The developer must make those pieces of information available in a form Siri can interpret.

Apple demonstrated this approach during WWDC26, showing how its App Intents framework enables Siri to send messages through a supported third-party application. The framework uses App Entities to describe information such as contacts and messages, while App Schemas help Siri understand what those items represent and which actions it can perform. Apple also demonstrated ways to make application content searchable and transfer information between supported apps.

Making these connections reliable requires more than exposing a feature. A messaging app might contain two contacts with similar names, or a request might be missing important information. Developers need to consider how the assistant identifies the correct information, handles incomplete requests, and determines when an action requires additional confirmation.

Those considerations extend to permissions, error handling, and testing. A function that works reliably when someone taps a button may need additional safeguards when an AI assistant interprets a spoken request and initiates the action.

Apple is not the only company developing this model. Google's experimental AppFunctions framework allows Android developers to make selected application functions available to authorized AI assistants and other applications. Although the technical approaches differ, both efforts reflect growing interest in allowing assistants to interact directly with software functions.

This does not mean traditional application interfaces will disappear. Customers will still need screens to compare products, explore information, review complex details, and correct mistakes. Developers will instead need to determine which activities benefit from direct interaction and which can be completed more efficiently through an assistant.

For businesses, that design decision introduces another challenge. If customers can search for information, communicate, and complete transactions through an AI assistant, they may have fewer reasons to visit an application's interface. Companies will need to consider how customers discover their services, recognize their brands, and maintain relationships when more interactions take place through an assistant rather than inside the application itself.

For businesses, AI assistants could create an additional way to reach customers, particularly when people want to accomplish a task quickly. But making services easier to access could also reduce the opportunities companies have to engage directly with those customers.

Consider a restaurant whose customers regularly use its loyalty app to make reservations. Each visit gives the restaurant an opportunity to promote an upcoming event, offer a discount, or encourage customers to use their rewards. If those same customers begin asking Siri to make reservations instead, the restaurant may still receive the bookings, but customers might never see those additional offers.

That illustrates a potential trade-off as AI assistants become more capable of completing tasks through applications. Businesses could make their services easier to access and potentially attract customers who might otherwise abandon a complicated process. At the same time, fewer visits to their apps could mean fewer opportunities to promote products, collect customer insights, and build loyalty.

Retailers are already confronting a version of this challenge through AI-powered shopping.

In August, Reuters reported that Walmart, Ulta Beauty, Wayfair, and other retailers were adapting their online product information to appear in AI-generated recommendations. Yet many wanted customers to complete purchases on their own websites, where they could maintain access to browsing behavior, purchase histories, and other information used to personalize experiences and encourage repeat business.

The potential upside is significant. Ulta Beauty reported that customers referred through AI platforms demonstrated stronger conversion and purchase intent, suggesting that AI recommendations can bring businesses shoppers who are closer to making a purchase. Even so, Ulta preferred to retain checkout and loyalty interactions within its own website.

That tension is also reflected in research from Boston Consulting Group. In an October 2026 analysis involving surveys of 50 major retailers and 100 global brands, BCG examined how businesses can remain visible to AI shopping agents while preserving the customer relationships that support loyalty, personalization, and advertising revenue.

The research found that 91% of surveyed retailers identified losing the direct customer relationship as a concern. It also emphasized that businesses increasingly face two challenges: giving consumers reasons to visit them directly and ensuring their products and services are competitive when AI agents make recommendations on shoppers' behalf.

Although BCG examined the broader AI commerce market rather than Apple's Siri integrations specifically, the underlying business dilemma is similar. Companies may gain additional transactions through assistants while losing some of the direct engagement that traditionally accompanied those transactions.

For the restaurant in our earlier example, the outcome could go either way. Easier reservations might encourage more frequent visits, generating additional revenue. But if fewer customers open the loyalty app, the restaurant could lose opportunities to promote special events, introduce new offers, or encourage participation in its rewards program.

The question for businesses is whether the additional activity generated through AI-assisted interactions outweighs the value of those missed opportunities.

It may also change how companies measure success. App downloads, daily active users, and time spent inside an application may become less informative on their own if customers increasingly accomplish meaningful tasks through AI assistants. Completed transactions, repeat purchases, customer retention, and revenue generated through assistant-driven interactions could become more important measures of performance.

For consumers, however, the appeal of completing everyday tasks without navigating multiple applications may be considerably more straightforward.

For consumers, the appeal of AI assistants that work across applications is straightforward: fewer steps between asking for something and getting it done. Instead of opening several apps, searching for information, and navigating different menus, people could increasingly rely on an assistant to handle those interactions.

Apple's expanded Siri integrations are intended to make more application functions accessible through natural-language requests. That could be particularly useful for people who prefer hands-free interactions or find complicated interfaces difficult to navigate. The potential benefits extend beyond individual tasks as assistants become capable of coordinating activities across multiple applications.

Consider someone planning a trip. A more autonomous version of Siri might eventually help compare travel options, check available dates, and coordinate reservations across different services. Apple has not demonstrated that complete scenario through its November developer preview, but it illustrates the kinds of connected activities more capable assistants could eventually support.

The convenience becomes more complicated when the assistant needs to make decisions along the way.

If several flights meet a traveler's requirements, should Siri select the cheapest, the shortest, or the one offering the most flexibility? Should it be allowed to make a reservation automatically, or should the traveler approve the purchase first? And what happens if the assistant misunderstands a preference or shares information with the wrong service?

These questions illustrate why consumer control becomes increasingly important as assistants handle more complex tasks. When people navigate applications themselves, they generally have opportunities to review information before taking action. As assistants perform more of those steps, users need ways to understand what is happening, confirm important decisions, and intervene when necessary.

Apple has introduced safeguards intended to reduce these risks. Its App Intents system evaluates actions based on their potential consequences and can require users to confirm higher-risk requests before they proceed. Developers can also require authentication before Siri performs sensitive actions, such as deleting personal information, particularly when a device is locked.

Apple has also outlined defenses against prompt injection, in which malicious instructions embedded in content attempt to manipulate an AI assistant into performing unintended actions. However, these protections do not eliminate every risk, and their effectiveness depends partly on how developers implement and test their integrations.

Consumers may also need clear records of completed actions, straightforward ways to correct mistakes, and controls for granting or revoking permissions. Understanding why an assistant recommended a particular option could become important when decisions involve personal preferences, sensitive information, or significant financial commitments.

Ultimately, the benefit of AI-assisted convenience depends partly on whether people can trust the assistant to act within the boundaries they establish. Greater automation could save time and simplify everyday activities, but it also raises a larger question: Who controls the interaction when an AI assistant makes decisions and takes actions between a consumer and a business?

When customers interact with businesses through AI assistants, the experience may depend on decisions made by several different parties. A company can still provide the product or service, but it may no longer control every part of how customers discover, access, or interact with that offering.

Consider someone asking Siri to find a nearby service provider. The businesses offering that service may determine their prices, availability, and customer policies. Their developers may determine which information and functions are accessible through Siri. But Apple, as the provider of the operating system and assistant, can influence how those integrations are presented and how customers interact with them.

That division of responsibility creates several practical questions. If a customer doesn't name a particular business, which providers will the assistant present? If the customer completes a transaction through Siri, will the business know that the interaction originated with the assistant? And how much information about the customer's preferences or activity will be available to the business?

The answers could affect how companies compete for customers. Businesses have traditionally relied on their own websites and applications to introduce products, recommend additional services, encourage loyalty participation, and understand customer behavior. When an assistant handles more of those interactions, some of those opportunities may depend on what the assistant makes available and how it presents competing options.

Research on AI-powered commerce has already identified customer data, loyalty, product discovery, and advertising as important competitive considerations. As discussed earlier, Boston Consulting Group found that retailers are concerned about losing direct customer relationships as AI agents become more involved in shopping. Businesses offering services through Siri could face similar challenges if customers increasingly rely on the assistant to discover providers, complete transactions, and interact with their services.

Apple has not yet explained every aspect of how its expanded Siri integrations will operate commercially. Its November 3 announcement indicated that additional terms and usage policies would follow, leaving questions about future business recommendations, transaction attribution, and customer-data access unresolved.

Until Apple provides more details, developers and businesses may have difficulty deciding how much to invest in these integrations and how to prepare for changes in the way customers interact with their services.

Developers will need to decide which tasks Siri can perform through their applications and how to ensure those tasks are completed accurately and safely. For businesses, the challenge is determining how to attract customers, promote additional services, and maintain loyalty when more interactions happen through Siri instead of directly inside their applications.

How these relationships develop will depend on Apple's eventual policies, the capabilities developers make available, and whether consumers prefer interacting directly with businesses or increasingly rely on AI assistants to complete tasks on their behalf.

Apple's Siri expansion could change how businesses evaluate the value of their applications. If customers can increasingly access services and complete tasks through AI assistants, an app's success may depend less on how often people open it and more on the results it delivers, regardless of how those interactions begin.

For developers, the immediate decision is which application functions would benefit from being accessible through Siri and how to make those interactions reliable. Businesses face a related question: how to capture the benefits of easier customer access while preserving the visibility, loyalty, and customer relationships that support long-term revenue. That may require measuring completed transactions, repeat business, and customer outcomes alongside traditional app engagement metrics.

The transition will not happen uniformly or immediately. Apple's expanded integrations remain in developer preview, and their commercial impact will depend on developer adoption, consumer behavior, and policies Apple has yet to finalize. The more autonomous Siri capabilities described in recent reporting also remain separate from what Apple has officially announced.

The larger implication extends beyond Apple's platform. As AI assistants become another way customers interact with software, businesses may need to design their digital services around the tasks customers want completed, rather than assuming those customers will always visit an app or website to complete them.

As that happens, businesses will face a defining question: How do they remain valuable to customers when the assistant becomes the primary way those customers interact with their services?

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing support, AEO/GEO/SEO optimization, image concept development, and editorial structuring support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant. All final editorial decisions, perspectives, and publishing choices were made by Alicia Shapiro.