Apple’s Siri once dominated the voice assistant scene, but in the age of ChatGPT, it’s starting to feel like a relic of the past. So, what went wrong? One of the minds behind the technology that powered Siri, Babak Hodjat, has some intriguing insights—and they might just challenge everything you thought you knew about Apple’s approach to AI.
Hodjat, a co-creator of the natural language processing tech that laid the foundation for Siri, argues that Apple’s obsession with the look and feel of its voice assistant came at the expense of the overall user experience. But here’s where it gets controversial: He believes Apple’s decision to make Siri primarily a voice-only assistant was a critical misstep. In an era where multimodal interactions—like typing or tapping—are the norm, Siri’s limitations feel increasingly outdated.
In a recent interview with Business Insider at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Hodjat reflected on Apple’s narrow focus. ‘They would be nitpicky about the look and feel of Siri,’ he said, suggesting that the company prioritized aesthetics over functionality. This approach, he argues, prevented Siri from evolving into a more versatile and intuitive tool.
To understand Siri’s origins, we need to rewind to the late 1990s. Hodjat, then CTO of the startup Dejima, co-invented agent-oriented technology that became part of CALO, a groundbreaking AI research project funded by the U.S. government. In 2007, a team of engineers (not including Hodjat) spun off Siri as a commercial venture. Apple acquired it in 2010 and launched it on iPhones in 2011. Hodjat, now Chief AI Officer at Cognizant, hasn’t been involved with Siri since the acquisition, but his perspective as an outsider is both sharp and revealing.
And this is the part most people miss: Hodjat emphasizes that the original vision for Siri wasn’t about voice alone. ‘Modality to us was secondary,’ he explained. ‘You can talk, you can type—it depends on the context.’ He even points out the psychological barriers of voice interactions, noting that it’s ‘surprisingly easier to talk to your car than your fridge,’ perhaps because cars feel more ‘alive’ with their movement and headlights.
Despite Siri’s widespread adoption—projected to reach 87.3 million users in 2025, according to EMARKETER—Apple has struggled to modernize it for the AI era. The company recently delayed a major Siri overhaul and is reportedly nearing a deal with Google to integrate its Gemini model into Siri’s features. Hodjat calls this a ‘smart move,’ but with a caveat: ‘They keep changing their minds on this thing.’
Here’s the burning question: Did Apple’s focus on aesthetics blind it to the future of AI? Or is there still hope for Siri to reclaim its throne? Let us know what you think in the comments—this debate is far from over.
