Enforcement of Europe’s Digital Markets Act means Apple can’t launch the system safely within the EU, the company said.

Apple’s new AI interface ‘Siri AI’ will not be available to EU users of its phones, tablets and smart watches when the company launches its new operating systems for the devices later this year.

The company said that due to restrictions set out and enforceable by Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), it could not safely integrate Siri AI into iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and watchOS 27 running on European iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches.

Apple said that solutions for a compliant integration of Siri AI for European users – which could also support other, rival virtual assistants in a safe manner – that it proposed to the EU over “the past several months” had not been accepted.

“We’re deeply disappointed that our EU users won’t have Siri AI on iPhone or iPad when we share our new software releases later this year,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice-president of software engineering.

“Our hope is to eventually bring Siri AI to the EU, and we will continue to engage with EU regulators on a path forward. However, their refusal to engage constructively on solutions that preserve privacy and security means we do not currently have a timeline for Siri AI’s availability on iOS and iPadOS in the EU.”

The disagreement centres on what Apple said is Europe’s “extreme interpretation of the DMA” that would require the company to give any rival virtual assistant “direct access to users’ private data – and the ability to directly control other installed applications – as soon as Siri AI is made available in the EU, without the essential protections necessary to keep users and their data safe”.

Apple demonstrated the newly redesigned AI interface at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday (8 June), but said “clear dangers to EU users” and “regulators’ failure to acknowledge these risks” would lock out its availability in the bloc.

The company said, however, that EU users of its computers and mixed reality headsets will be able to access Siri AI on macOS 27 and visionOS 27, respectively.

Forrester vice-president and principal analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee described the new, updated AI integration as “a far more capable, context-aware, conversational assistant”, but said its success would “hinge on delivering the new Siri experience quickly, and ensuring it works as promised for iPhone users at scale”.

Apple has previously advocated that the EU get rid of the DMA, claiming that the antitrust legislation is “forcing” the company to make “concerning changes” to how it delivers its services to European users.

Passed in 2022, the DMA aims to crack down on anticompetitive behaviour from Big Tech companies and level the online digital market space.

Last summer, Apple changed its App Store policies for EU users in an effort to comply with the DMA.

In April, the company announced plans for a leadership transition from Tim Cook to John Ternus, shortly before reporting its “best March quarter ever” with revenue of $111.2bn.

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