You know how Siri's always been a step behind the curve? Well, Bank of America's Wamsi Mohan floated the idea that Apple (AAPL, Financial) could team up with—or even buy—Perplexity AI to give its voice assistant some real smarts.
Perplexity's got cutting-edge generative search tech, so imagine asking Siri a tricky question and actually getting a satisfying answer instead of a shrug and a web link.
On the plus side, bringing Perplexity's crew and models in would let Apple jump-start Siri improvements, tap into search advertising revenue. Currently, Google's (GOOG, Financial) still the default, and lock down some top AI talent before someone else snaps them up. Plus, tighter integration between on-device smarts and cloud AI could unlock new ways to bundle hardware and services—think of it as Siri finally earning its keep.
But don't get too excited just yet. Merging two companies is always messy: there's integration risk, you've got to keep the Perplexity team happy, and regulators might squint hard at any deal that edges Apple further into search.
And even if everything goes smoothly, users still have to actually switch over to the new, souped-up Siri. Worst case, Apple pays up but sees only a trickle of new ad revenue if default-search deals with Google stay intact.
At the end of the day, Mohan thinks any sign that Apple's shedding its “AI laggard” rep would be a mood booster for the stock. A full buyout might give more of a valuation bump than a simple partnership, but either move would signal that Cupertino's serious about catching up in the voice-assistant and search wars.
