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Siri AI might be the defining Apple story of 2026—even the upcoming foldable iPhone may not be able to compete. After a two-year delay—and many more years of stagnant growth—Apple’s AI-upgraded assistant is here, and it actually appears to be quite useful. Most of the attention so far is on how Siri AI works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, the devices with which you likely use Siri the most. But your Apple Watch is also getting the benefits of Siri AI this year as well—assuming, of course, it is new enough to support watchOS 27.
With a compatible Apple Watch running watchOS 27 (as well as an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone), you’ll be able to call upon Apple’s AI-powered assistant from your wrist. You can ask it questions like you would other chatbots (think ChatGPT or Gemini), request it to take action in specific apps (e.g., “Send Dad my flight number” or “Play that song that James sent me”), and ask for specific details from across your device, like the photos from a recent trip or the door code for your Airbnb. Plus, you can open the new Siri app to see the conversations you’ve had on your other Apple devices, and jump into one at any time.
While it’s still early days, preliminary reviews of Siri AI on Apple Watch appear to be positive, meaning Apple may have just turned your Apple Watch into a portable AI assistant that can handle quick requests while you’re on-the-go. If you’re intrigued, you don’t need to wait to find out: Though the final version of watchOS 27 isn’t due out until sometime this fall, you can actually try Siri AI on your watch right now. You just need to understand the risks involved.
If you like predicting Apple’s many product announcements, check out Lifehacker’s “Big Guessing Game.” The game is currently in its second round, and offers readers the chance to win the latest Apple Watch.
You can’t uninstall or downgrade from the watchOS 27 beta
All betas come with some inherent risk. You agree to install unfinished software on your device in exchange for access to features the general public won’t see for months. As such, you might encounter bugs and glitches you wouldn’t normally find in general releases, and while these may be simply annoying, they could hypothetically impact your ability to use the device.
If that happens on your iPhone or Mac, you can always uninstall the beta—though that comes with the risk of data loss if you didn’t perform a proper backup ahead of time. Still, you do have an emergency exit should you need it. No such exit exists for the watchOS betas: Once you install the watchOS 27 beta on your Apple Watch, it’ll be stuck on the watchOS 27 beta until Apple completes the beta cycle. There is no way to downgrade to watchOS 26.
I’m not trying to fear-monger. I haven’t seen any reports that watchOS 27 is particularly unstable or is breaking people’s Apple Watches. Still, it’s a risk you need to be aware of if you decide to try watchOS 27 and Siri AI on your device ahead of the general release in the fall.
What do you think so far?
Installing the watchOS 27 beta on your Apple Watch
Siri AI is available on all compatible Apple devices through the company’s various betas. For Apple Watch, that’s the watchOS 27 beta. And even though it’s impossible to downgrade from watchOS 27, it’s actually not all that hard to install if you’re interested: Now that the public beta is out, you can enroll your Apple Account in the Apple Beta Program to access it. You’ll first need to install the public beta of iOS 27 on your iPhone, but once that’s done, you’ll be able to go to Settings > General > Software Update > Beta Updates in the Watch app and choose watchOS 27 Public Beta. From here, you can install the latest watchOS 27 beta like any other update, by navigating to General > Software Update in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
Remember: You need an Apple Watch that supports watchOS 27 as well as an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence for Siri AI to work. That generally means an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, as well as an Apple Watch Series 9 or newer, or Apple Watch Ultra 2 or newer.
Siri AI won’t be available right away, however. You’ll need to manually join Apple’s waitlist first. Once you do, there’s no telling how long it will take to hit your iPhone and your Apple Watch. Some users report access within minutes, while others report it could take days.
