The two most noticeable things about macOS 27 Golden Gate are the newly updated Siri AI and the design changes that make windows and icons more consistent. Siri AI offers the same features and capabilities as on iOS 27, but the Mac gives it access to different context — and new ways to be useful. Over the last few years, apps and browsers have tried to learn more about your work and what you want to use AI assistants for, so they can better answer your questions or perform tasks.
Today, many top web browsers, excluding Safari, come with a sidebar-based AI assistant that can look at one or multiple open tabs to provide contextual answers. Apps like Highlight, Caddy, and Littlebird can also look at your current window, then use that information as context for your queries. You can invoke Siri anywhere on your screen, allowing it to answer questions about what it sees, summarize information, or provide you with more details.
For instance, if you are looking at an item you want to purchase, you could ask Siri to show you alternative options too. Instead of having Siri look at the whole page, you can also select a part of the page via Apple’s new Visual Intelligence features. If you press Command + Shift + Space, you can add the currently focused window to your context for the AI.
To select a specific part, press Command + Shift + 6 to bring up a crosshair selection tool. After this, you can directly ask a question or perform an image search. Based on your selection, you will also get shortcuts like “select,” “add to contact,” and “look up location.” Apple has also improved Spotlight Search on Mac.
You can directly ask Siri questions within Spotlight to get answers from the web, and you now you can also select Applications, Files, Actions, and Clipboard to search within that particular area of context. Plus, Spotlight now allows you to run Shortcuts or look up your recent search history. Since Siri has access to your files, emails, and messages, you’re able to search for a variety of things that you couldn’t before.
In tests, I pulled up membership IDs without opening my files, asked for details about an upcoming trip, and looked up the embargo date for an upcoming news story in the works. While I don’t find Spotlight as advanced as the highly extensible Mac productivity tool Raycast, it’s still much better than before. Siri can also now help you with reviewing documents or performing writing tasks.
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