Apple's AI Struggles Cast Shadow Over WWDC 2025

At WWDC 25, Apple should make amends with developers after AI shortfalls and lawsuits | TechCrunch

There was palpable excitement around Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) last year. The company was about to unveil its AI capabilities, with the tech world expecting the company to unveil an AI platform capable of competing with Google and OpenAI. The demos Apple showed off at the time were compelling, but the follow-through has been underwhelming, leaving both developers and consumers wanting more. Apple's broader struggles with AI have become clearer over the past year. Its ambitions around personalized intelligence have faced delays, and its rollout of new tools has been inconsistent. The vision that Apple sold in 2024 -- a seamless blend of on-device AI, revamped Siri interactions, and powerful new developer capabilities -- has yet to materialize in full. Apple Intelligence features saw a staggered rollout that came with several hiccups. The personalized version of Siri that was showcased last year has been delayed, which matters because Apple framed the new Siri as a cornerstone of its AI strategy -- a context-aware assistant that could understand user behavior across apps. Without it, the company's AI value proposition looks surprisingly thin. This also meant that developers couldn't take full advantage of the new AI-powered Siri, and users couldn't rely on the assistant to perform in-app actions as promised. For developers, that's a lost opportunity to build more interactive, intelligent app experiences. For consumers, it's another promise unfulfilled. And for Apple, it raises concerns about how competitive its AI stack really is compared to its increasingly powerful rivals like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. With WWDC 2025 now just around the corner, expectations for consumer-facing Apple Intelligence features are more cautious than last year. Most developers and analysts are now hoping for incremental improvements: smoother integration of AI into native apps, and tools that empower developers to actually use the AI that Apple is building. (No is expecting much on the Siri front.) One of Apple's best opportunities lies in enabling AI-assisted app development. The rise of tools like Cursor, Replit, and Bolt.new has made code generation a whole lot easier, helping developers, and even non-developers, bring products to life faster. AI-powered apps have found the web an effective distribution platform. ChatGPT, for instance, gained massive traction on the web before launching native apps for iOS and Android. At the same time, tools like WordPress, Hostinger, Canva, and Figma now let non-technical users create simple apps using natural language prompts. Apple needs to modernize here, too. Ideally, new AI tooling should allow more developers to create apps and post them on the App Store. That would enrich the iOS app ecosystem and open up new revenue opportunities for Apple, which is even more critical now that some of its App Store income is under threat. Apple has made some announcements, but many have yet to materialize. Swift Assist, a coding assistant for Xcode, was shown off last year but hasn't seen wide release. Apple is also reportedly working on an Anthropic-powered AI coding tool and plans to open access to its own AI models for developers. The goal is to lower the barrier for building iOS apps, both for pros and newcomers. However, there are two things to consider: the web's dominance as an application distribution platform and new regulations that bar Apple from charging fees in the U.S. for payments outside the app. The second part is a particularly big deal. In April, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers asked Apple to remove restrictions around linking to outside payment methods for digital purchases in apps for the U.S. App Store. More importantly, the ruling also barred Apple from charging any fees for these kinds of payments. On Wednesday, a U.S. court rejected Apple's appeal to put a stay on the ruling. This means developers will encourage customers to purchase subscriptions and add-ons outside the App Store, also possibly at a discounted rate compared with their App Store prices. This ruling could also spur other regulators to put similar pressure on Apple and cull App Store fees for third-party payments. Earlier this week, Apple reported that it generated $1.3 trillion in billings and sales in 2024, with 90% of that value generation happening without paying Apple a commission. But even some percentage of the remaining $130 billion means many billions in revenue for the company. Amid all this, Apple needs to reassert the value of its ecosystem. It's not clear if Apple will cut its commissions, but it will be interesting to see what kind of App Store features the company launches to make native iOS apps a more lucrative avenue for developers. As WWDC 2025 approaches, Apple is in the unusual position of having to share a better story. Its AI ambitions are being challenged not only by faster-moving competitors but also by changing legal and economic realities. To succeed, Apple has to demonstrate that it can deliver on AI, for end users and the developers who power its ecosystem. Especially in a world where AI accelerates everything, Apple can't afford to lag behind.

Could WWDC be Apple's AI turning point? Here's what analysts are predicting

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is only a couple of days away, and there is palpable anticipation regarding what is next for its AI platform, Apple Intelligence. The world was first introduced to Apple Intelligence at last year's WWDC. The company advertised that Siri would be upgraded to have insights into all of your interactions with your device to provide next-level, personal, and intuitive assistance. That feature has not yet shipped to devices, leaving many users frustrated as they still wait for what is next. Also: 3 Apple Intelligence features that would convince me to ditch Gemini and ChatGPT On the other hand, Apple did unveil a suite of other AI features that, while not as flashy, were practical and helpful, such as Clean Up in Photos, Genmoji, Writing Tools, Priority Notifications, and more. These features were integrated tactfully, making them easy to use without overwhelming users. For some users, this was enough to keep them satisfied. So, as WWDC is around the corner, a big question remains: Will AI be able to catch up with competitors in the AI race, and what would it take to do so? ZDNET talked to analysts and gathered their perspectives on whether Apple is behind and what it needs to do, and the results are split. There are many questions about when the biggest Apple Intelligence feature, Siri 2.0, will be released. Apple has publicly stated that giving Siri awareness of a user's personal context and taking action for users within apps would take longer than it had thought. It also said it anticipates rolling out the features in the coming year. However, a Bloomberg report places the timeline even further, as late as 2027. For users who upgraded their iPhones to models with an A18 chipset to support these Apple Intelligence features, much of the frustration stems from not knowing when they will get the update. Adding another layer of confusion is that this approach deviates from what Apple has typically adhered to in the past, says Tom Mainelli, IDC's group vice president of device and consumer research. Also: iOS 26 isn't just about a new name and Solarium - here's what else is coming "It certainly appears that Apple is behind here in 2025, in part because they made a lot of promises at WWDC 2024, and have yet to fulfill a lot of those promises, and I think it was kind of an uncharacteristic error on Apple's part," said Mainelli. "They tend to sort of hold back and really only talk about stuff when they're ready to talk about it, and traditionally, that has served them well." As a result, Mainelli expects Apple to be a bit more conservative in its announcements this year. While this may seem disappointing to some, Forrester vice president and principal analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee suggests that caution and clarity are of the essence to restore users' confidence. "Apple Intelligence hasn't lived up to its promise, and, in particular, Siri has fallen well short of delivering the seamless interaction that consumers are now accustomed to from gen AI agents," said Chatterjee. "WWDC would be the ideal time to lay out a clear roadmap of improvements and alleviate concerns that the experience may fall behind its competitors." Also: Apple just gave me 3 big reasons to keep my AirPods for longer - and be excited for iOS 26 On the theme of transparency, it is also important for Apple to be realistic when discussing what is to come. If the company is going to announce any new Apple Intelligence features, they need to be deliverable so as not to frustrate users further. Although it may seem like it is behind, Paolo Pescatore, PP Foresight founder and TMT analyst, encourages the company to take its time to avoid disappointing users further. "While there is no clear leader in the AI race as it's still early days, arguably Apple's efforts are not resonating with customers," said Paolo Pescatore, PP Foresight Founder, TMT Analyst. "This is a marathon and not a sprint, so there is time, but much more work needs to be done under the hood. Apple needs to tread carefully not to frustrate and disappoint its loyal base of (iPhone) users." Although it is unlike Apple to launch or announce a feature without being ready to roll it out to devices, the AI space is moving so quickly that other companies have similarly had to hold back from releasing some of their most innovative and exciting features. A prime example is Microsoft Recall, a feature meant to record the user's screen and index the information to make it searchable with AI. It was announced in May 2024 and initially supposed to be released to the public in June 2024, but was delayed several times for privacy reasons, finally launching in preview in April 2025. Also: What is Solarium? Everything we know about Apple's biggest UI overhaul in a decade "I think it's important to note that almost everybody who has made promises has had a hard time fulfilling them to date -- Microsoft, with Copilot Plus and some of the features in Copilot Plus around Windows, has taken longer to deliver, I think you can say the same about Amazon and Alexa Plus," said Mainelli. Beyond that, even though it may seem like Apple is lagging behind other companies in the AI race because its AI features aren't the most advanced in the space, at the moment it is also worth noting how nascent this AI space is. Since ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, which kicked off the generative AI craze, strides have been taken in the space. However, generally speaking, the features readily available right now are still on the same AI assistant spectrum, with none breaking very far into the agentic space -- just yet. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) Also: How Apple plans to train its AI on your data without sacrificing your privacy "Apple gives the perception that it is lagging behind other technology companies when it comes to AI, however direct competitors in the device space are not yet offering drastically differentiated and more integrated AI user-experiences, I therefore disagree Apple is really late in the AI race, which is more of a marathon than a sprint," said Andrew Cornwall, Forrester VP and Principal Analyst. Get the morning's top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.

Apple Is Years Behind Google and Microsoft in AI. How Soon Will It Affect Sales?

At Apple's 2024 Worldwide Developer Conference, I sat in the baking sun outside the company's glass spaceship-like headquarters in Cupertino while Craig Federighi described the marvelous capabilities of Apple Intelligence. He promised that your iPhone would be able to synthesize your interactions with public data to deliver practical answers to questions like "What time should I leave to pick up Julian?" Your phone would know that Julian is your nephew who is visiting you in Albuquerque on the 6:10 Delta flight, and how the current traffic affects when you should depart for the airport. These examples excited the crowd. But this and other functionality still isn't available, and there's no sign of Apple doing anything about it. Meanwhile, Google and Microsoft continue to add advanced AI features to their respective platforms. We're fast approaching a breaking point here. If Cupertino doesn't recenter its attention on Apple Intelligence very soon (WWDC seems like an obvious time to start) and make tangible progress, I don't think it will ever be a true competitor in the AI space. Consequentially, I don't think consumers will continue to pay for technology with simply average AI. Apple Intelligence Stays Behind the Curtain Siri is a major entry point for AI features on Apple devices, so last year, I asked with high expectations: Will Apple's AI Finally Make Siri Smart? Now, we know that the answer is "not this year." Instead, we got a few updates, such as the ability to type to Siri, better voice recognition, continued context, a full-screen glowing effect, and integrated Apple product knowledge. For me, the best among these is the continued conversational context, which means Siri remembers all the previous things you say or type during an interaction. Other capabilities also arrived across Apple's OSes, but they too are underwhelming. They allow you to generate emoji and get writing assistance, for example. These updates are a far cry from the vision Apple outlined at WWDC. I applaud the development of the Private Cloud Compute feature since a secure environment for AI is vital, but Apple Intelligence still needs to have compelling features for people to care. On that note, the company has since hinted that the truly smarter AI-powered Siri won't be arriving until 2026. That's two years after Copilot arrived on Microsoft's Windows 11 and a year after Gemini showed up on Google's Android. Two years is a long time to be behind on AI, and potentially an insurmountable hurdle. Copilot and Gemini are far more advanced at this point. The AI assistants can see what's on your screen and provide information, analysis, and actions based on it. They can also organize, summarize, and draft responses for your emails, generate photorealistic images (Apple's Image Playground can create only cartoon-like images), and translate any playing audio or video on your device in real-time. Though Apple promises this kind of intelligence, it's not nearly on the same level. According to reports, Apple will apparently focus on its Solarium interface update at WWDC instead of announcing development efforts for Apple Intelligence. Its OSes already benefit from decades of refinements and deep familiarity among users, so I'm not really sure what the point is in light of its AI shortcomings. Sales Aren't Falling Yet, But That Could Change Soon For all its AI woes, Apple is still a leader among phone vendors. Yes, iPhone sales decreased 5% over the last quarter, and market share edged down from 19% to 18% among all phone vendors. But Samsung's market share also slipped, from 20% to 19%. Both of these declines could just be due to market saturation. People might just be unwilling to spend on a new phone because of tariffs. Restrictions on iPhone sales in China, where overall phone sales actually grew, are also likely affecting Apple's numbers. On the desktop OS side, the market share of macOS computers continues to rise at the expense of Windows PC manufacturers, though it's still far behind Dell, Lenovo, and HP. Whether we just aren't far enough into the era of AI for sales figures to reflect Apple's AI failings remains unclear, but the industry is shifting fast. And Apple is actually in a good position hardware-wise; all its latest devices have chips capable of local AI processing. Not all PCs have NPUs, and not all Android phones have the power to run on-device AI features. That could be Apple's saving grace if only the software features catch up. When Will Apple Get AI Right? AI has existed a lot longer than you might realize. Machine learning and neural networks have been around for decades, dating all the way back to the '50s and gathering steam in the '90s, aughts, and teens. Progress in AI takes time, too -- a lot of time. It took until just a couple of years ago to make the jump to arrive at the kind of Generative Pre-trained Transformer technology that made ChatGPT seem so revolutionary. Apple is a big company with massive resources and top tech minds. It could absolutely become competitive, but it needs to commit to this goal with a sense of urgency to have a chance to catch Google and Microsoft and save its sales numbers in the long run. Otherwise, it might not ever be able to meet consumers' expectations and excitement, and thus risks missing out on the defining technology of this decade.

Apple's struggles to update Siri lead to investor concerns over AI strategy

Apple is struggling to deliver upgrades to its artificial intelligence voice assistant for the iPhone, with investors downbeat about the potential for major AI announcements at its flagship annual event next week. Recently departed employees told the Financial Times that the Silicon Valley giant has been hit by challenges with updating Siri using cutting-edge large language models that can deliver more sophisticated responses to spoken prompts. Apple has been attempting to build its own LLMs over the machine learning technology that currently powers Siri, a product already used in hundreds of millions of its bestselling devices, with the aim of creating a truly conversational assistant. Former executives said that the process of integrating the technologies has led to bugs, an issue not faced by competitors such as OpenAI which have built generative AI-based voice assistants from scratch. One former Apple executive said: "It was obvious that you were not going to revamp Siri by doing what executives called 'climbing the hill'," meaning to incrementally develop the product rather than rebuilding it from the ground up. "It's clear that they stumbled," the person added. The updates to Siri form a key part of "Apple Intelligence," a suite of AI features announced at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference last year and intended to boost hardware sales. The FT reported this week that Apple's attempt to rollout the AI features in China, powered by models made by Alibaba, is being held up by a Beijing regulator. Sensitive deals in the country involving American tech companies have come under closer scrutiny in response to US President Donald Trump's trade war. Repeated failures to release Apple Intelligence features that have already been announced has meant expectations are low for this year's WWDC, which kicks off next week. "We're at the point where investors already know what the good news potentially is, and it's about: let's first have you deliver what you promised last year," says Samik Chatterjee at JPMorgan. The AI struggles have weighed on the tech giant's stock. It has been worst-performing of the so-called Magnificent 7 tech stocks in 2025, down around 18 per cent since the start of the year and below the tech-heavy Nasdaq which is largely flat. Trump's tariffs, competitive threats in China, and legal pressure on Apple's high-margin services business have also led to investor concerns about its long-term growth. At the core of Apple's AI troubles is Siri, its legacy voice assistant which is seen as critical to unlocking true "agentic" abilities on the iPhone and other Apple devices. When ChatGPT launched in late 2022, "the way companies were doing conversational interaction was changing rapidly, and it was clear Siri was coming up short," said another former senior Apple employee who worked on the technology ahead of the launch. The person added that they were "surprised" to see features announced last year that were ultimately "not going to make it" in time for Apple Intelligence's initial release. As well as operating much larger and more powerful models, the likes of OpenAI, Google and Perplexity all have launched voice assistants that are widely viewed as smarter than Apple's. The iPhone-maker's answer was to focus last year's annual developer conference on its own AI push, where it teased an AI-upgraded assistant able to read the user's screen, draw on their contextual information and take actions within their apps. A group of AI features such as writing aids, image and emoji generation and camera-based search have already hit the market. The heralded changes to Siri are yet to be released, however. Chief executive Tim Cook recently admitted the technology did not meet the company's "high quality bar" and was "taking a bit longer than we thought." The delays led to Apple pulling TV ads featuring The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey that promoted the new Siri update. The company drew a number of false advertising lawsuits from consumers. The current delays to Siri mean that Apple is essentially three years or more away from delivering "a truly modern AI assistant, long after Google and others have integrated such tech," Bank of America analysts wrote on Monday. The failures have led to changes at Apple. John Giannandrea, its AI guru poached from Google in 2018, saw the Siri product division removed from his remit earlier this year and transferred to Mike Rockwell, the executive behind the Vision Pro headset. A former Apple executive said that fragmented leadership teams led to a lack of a unified strategy around AI, made worse by an initial lack of appetite on the part of top executives to allocate a big enough budget for the build-out of the technology. Another challenge for is Apple's focus on user privacy and security. It has prioritised running its AI features through smaller models and user data staying on the device, which former employees said adds another layer of complexity to the challenge. This stands in contrast to larger LLMs such as those that power OpenAI's ChatGPT, which run through the cloud on powerful servers. Apple has leaned on OpenAI by releasing ChatGPT integration with Siri. Since then, OpenAI has signalled its own ambitions in the hardware space, with chief executive Sam Altman announcing a $6.5bn deal to acquire IO, the company founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, who will now be creating products for a potential rival. Apple shares fell about 2 per cent on the news.

At WWDC, Apple's AI strategy comes into question

One year ago, Apple announced Apple Intelligence, its response to the wave of sophisticated chatbots and systems kicked off by the arrival of ChatGPT and the age of generative AI. Analysts said Apple's installed base of more than 1 billion iPhones, the data on its device and its custom-designed silicon chips were advantages that would help the company become an AI leader. Now, investors are calling for Apple to do something major to catch up in AI, which is rapidly transforming the tech industry. When CEO Tim Cook speaks at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California, investors on Monday, fans and developers will want to hear how the company's approach to AI has changed. That's especially important after some Apple executives have said that the technology could be the reason the iPhone gets supplanted by the next-generation of computer hardware. "You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now," Apple services chief Eddy Cue said in court last month in one of the government's antitrust case against Google, adding that AI was a "huge technological shift" that can upend incumbents like Apple. The Apple Intelligence rollout was rocky. The first features launched in October -- tools for rewriting text, a new Siri animation and improved voice, and a tool that generates slideshow movies out of user photos -- were underwhelming. One key feature, which came out in December, summarized long stacks of text messages. But it was disabled for news and media apps after the BBC discovered that it twisted headlines to display factually incorrect information. But the biggest stumble for Apple came in early March, when the company said that it was delaying "More personal Siri," a major improvement to the Siri voice assistant that would integrate it with iPhone apps so it could do things like find details from inside emails and make restaurant reservations. Apple had been advertising the feature on television as a key reason to buy an iPhone 16, but after delaying the feature until the "coming year," it pulled the ads from broadcast and YouTube. The company now faces class-action suits from people who claim they were misled into buying a new iPhone.

What Apple has to say about AI this week could finally lift its battered stock

For investors, the stakes are high for Apple to deliver at its developer conference this week. Apple holds its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California this week, opened by a keynote address Monday by CEO Tim Cook that many hope will have unveil an artificial intelligence strategy compelling enough to kickstart a new iPhone replacement cycle. That will be important for a stock that has floundered this year, ceding its crown as the world's most valuable public company after taking a beating from President Donald Trump's tariffs. The iPhone maker, now trailing Microsoft and Nvidia in market value, is more than 20% off its all-time high reached in late December. WWDC "is important every year, but it's probably as important as it's ever been," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management. "That's going to be instructive, because Apple has been one of the biggest underperformers of the large cap technology stocks, full stop." AAPL YTD mountain Apple, year to date Reversing the narrative Investors look to the developer conference as an opportunity for Apple to reverse the narrative, especially as its fledgling AI offering has some in the company concerned Apple could face an existential crisis in the future. Its Apple Intelligence product has lagged behind other generative AI models such as those from Google-parent Alphabet , Meta Platforms and OpenAI. Still, users are confident that Apple has the time to get it right, given its history of developing new features and its massive base of customers loyal to the company's devices. "When someone says, 'What's your favorite, you know, chatbot right now? Who are you using agentically for artificial intelligence? Well, you've got, you know, five, six, seven, eight decisions to make there," Hogan said. "Typically, you only have one decision on where you're accessing them from. It's like, 'Well, this is what I use on my iPhone.' 'This is what I use on my iPad.' 'This is what I use on my Mac Book.'" "So I think that the fact that they've got a large and loyal base of users, their ability to now talk to us next week about what it is they're going to be delivering to that user base, will be exciting," Hogan said. "And the first time that they will have exciting news to talk about as it pertains to artificial intelligence." Stock catch up A positive catalyst also means Apple could start to play catch up to the other Magnificent Seven stocks. The iPhone maker is the only one of the megacaps tech companies that's down so far this quarter, off by 8%, even as investors as a whole have returned to growth stocks . "Apple can help lift the market if, in fact, it delivers a story in WWDC that is constructive around its latest rollout of devices," Hogan said. However, others on the Street are less enthused. This week, Needham analyst Laura Martin downgraded Apple to hold from buy and removed her price target, saying the iPhone maker's high valuation and Apple's slower growth has dimmed her view. She's also concerned Apple will not have anything particularly exciting to share at WWDC, citing rumors from blogs that have longered the tech company. "We have sort of a comprehensive summary of features of what they're going to say at WWDC next week, and what they're going to announce for features for iPhone 17, and neither of those feel it will be compelling enough to drive owners to upgrade their iPhones," Martin said. "So, the impact it has on Apple is, if we don't hear anything exciting or intriguing next week, then Apple, the stock, will not have a positive catalyst." Still, JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee pointed out that the summer period, from June to mid-September, is a seasonally strong one for Apple, as excitement usually ramps up over new iPhone releases. Friday capped off a winning week, with Apple rising 1.5% in the most recent five days, extending its latest move higher to a third week in four.

Apple Has a Huge Siri Problem That WWDC 2025 Probably Won't Fix

If Apple is going to address its stumbles with AI, now would be the time, but my hopes aren't super high. Apple's annual WWDC developer conference is almost here, and it's shaping up to be an important one. Not just for iOS, which is taking another step forward into a rumored redesigned iOS 19â€"erâ€"iOS 26, or for iPadOS, which just got WhatsApp right on time, or even for visionOS, the operating system for Apple's seemingly sidelined Vision Pro headset that is still awaiting a rumored cheaper version. Put all of those expected updates aside for a moment, because Apple actually has bigger fish to fry this year, and no iOS redesign will be enough to distract from the big, pink, AI-shaped elephant in the room. It's time to talk about AI Siri, or the lack thereof. In case you haven't been keeping track, Apple Intelligence has had some struggles since Apple's launch in October 2024, and the most notable of those stumbles is arguably its LLM-powered Siri voice assistant, which, to date, still hasn't made its debut. As Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported in March, Apple has delayed its Siri upgrade indefinitely after trying and failing to get its Apple Intelligence centerpiece up to snuff. "...Apple was struggling to finish developing the features and the enhancements would be postponed until at least May when iOS 18.5 is due to arrive," Bloomberg wrote in March. "Since then, Apple engineers have been racing to fix a rash of bugs in the project. The work has been unsuccessful, according to people involved in the efforts, and they now believe the features won’t be released until next year at the earliest." Listen, things happen, products get delayed, and plans go awry, but that's not necessarily what makes Apple's Siri stumble interesting; it's that the issue may be indicative of the company's struggles with developing next-gen AI in general, and given the way things are going in the tech world right now, that's decidedly bad for business. Apple has already started its journey into integrating generative AI and LLM-powered features into its products from a position that's well behind competitors. That's not unusualâ€"Apple is known for a more wait-and-see approachâ€"but when the wait-and-see is coupled with struggles out of the gate, eyebrows tend to raise. That's exactly where we're at now. And given those very public struggles and the pressure to amend them, WWDC 2025 may come with higher stakes than usual, not just to move the entire iOS ecosystem forward in a substantive way, but to set the record straight on Apple's acumen in the still very volatile world of AI. Does Apple have the brainpower and vision to set a course for Apple Intelligence, or has the AI/ML team in charge of the features earned the internal nickname reportedly bestowed by the company's fellow engineers? That nickname, by the way, is AIMLess. Ouch... The good news for Apple is that, for the most part, the pressure is more optical than consequential at this point. Most people, despite the business emphasis on generative AI and LLMs, aren't fixated on their phones, laptops, or tablets having those AI features. In fact, recent polling from CNET about whether people with iPhones or Samsung phones actually use or want AI features seems to suggest that interest is tepid at best. According to a poll from December 2024, an overwhelming number of people (73% of iPhone users and 87% of Samsung users, to be exact) who can use AI on their devices say that they think the features add little to no value to their general phone experience. For that reason, I'm not going to call WWDC 2025 a make-or-break moment for Apple's AI features by any means, but it's also not a complete write-off either. While Apple figures out a way to set its course straight, other competitors like Samsung and Google seem to be plowing ahead and throwing AI features at the wall. Most of those are frankly small potatoes right now, but that may not be the case for long. Don't get me wrong, I'm still skeptical of AI's long-term impact on our gadgets and lives in general, but given the amount of capital and attention on AI, that could all soon change. And if Apple is behind for another year, then that makes it even harder to catch up. Still, it's more about optics, and if I were a betting man, I'd put money on Apple shifting the emphasis on its alleged flashy redesign of iOS and hoping the attention stays on the things that it is doing as opposed to what's missing. And maybe iOS will be enough to steal the show. Early rumors suggest there's a big visual overhaul coming that's inspired by visionOS, and lord knows I'm a sucker for a vibe shift. There are also rumors of a gaming hub that unifies Apple gaming across platforms and features like improved battery management that may give your device some extra juice. I'm sure there will be a lot to sort through once WWDC 2025 is actually underway next week, and I'm sure much of it will be additive and maybe even fun, but the fact remains: Apple won't be able to hide from its AI missteps for long, and the developer conference may be the perfect time to rip that Siri-shaped band-aid off.

Apple Intelligence: Here's what is (and isn't) coming in iOS 26 - 9to5Mac

While AI might not be the focus of WWDC this year, Apple is set to make several important Apple Intelligence announcements come Monday. Here's what's expected, as reported by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple has built new, more powerful versions of its foundation models, the large language models that power Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools, Genmoji, and text summarization. As Gurman had previously noted: "Versions with 3 billion, 7 billion, 33 billion and 150 billion parameters are now in active use. The 150 billion parameter model, which relies on the cloud like OpenAI and Google, is far more powerful than Apple's on-device technology and capable of more nuanced reasoning." Apple will let developers access its in-house foundation models for the first time. That means third-party apps will be able to offer features such as generating summaries, writing suggestions, and offering other generative tools using the same tech behind Apple's Writing Tools and Genmoji. However, developers will only have access to on-device models. Cloud models will, for now, be off-limits. The Translate app is expanding in a big way. Apple is integrating translation into text messages and phone calls, and has also been working on bringing it to live AirPods conversations. This is poised to be one of Apple Intelligence's most practical consumer-facing features for the year, and it might finally put Apple on a stronger footing next to Google's existing tools in Android. Genmoji, Apple's AI emoji generator, is getting a fun little upgrade. Users will now be able to combine two standard emoji to generate an entirely new one. The Shortcuts app is getting a smarter, more powerful engine. With Apple Intelligence integration, users will be able to create automations more naturally, with the system understanding more contextual prompts and turning them into actual shortcuts. Apple is set to announce a machine learning-based battery saving mode, designed to adapt to your usage patterns in real time. It might come later in the year, as it was developed for the upcoming iPhone 17 Air (which will reportedly have a smaller battery and might need all the energy efficiency help it can get). Last year, Apple previewed Swift Assist, an AI coding assistant built into Xcode that ran on Apple's own AI models. However, it never launched because internal testing revealed hallucinations and reliability problems. This time around, Apple is trying something different: a new version of Xcode that works with third-party LLMs, like Anthropic's Claude. These models can run locally or in the cloud, bringing Xcode on par with other LLM-integrated IDEs. Zero surprise given recent leaks and developments, but there won't be Siri news at this year's keynote. A revamped, LLM-powered Siri, nicknamed LLM Siri internally, is still at least a year out. When it ships, it will enable much deeper control of apps and access to personal context, but it won't be demoed next week. Apple has been in talks with Google to integrate its Gemini LLMs as an alternative to OpenAI's ChatGPT, particularly for Siri and Writing Tools. However, the partnership is still pending, likely tied to the outcome of the U.S. DOJ's antitrust ruling on the Google-Apple search deal. So, despite Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai's recent remarks, no Gemini announcement is expected at WWDC. Any reveal would likely come later this year. Two Apple Intelligence efforts originally planned for this year won't be making an appearance: Apple has been working on a fully rebuilt Calendar app with AI scheduling features and on a previously reported new AI doctor-style Health assistant, code-named Mulberry. Due to project delays, neither is poised to be demoed next week. Both are now targeted for iOS 27 and macOS 27 in 2026, although Gurman says, "There will be smaller changes this year."

WWDC 2025 is make or break for Apple Intelligence -- here's why

Of course Apple Intelligence hasn't really been the resounding success that Apple probably hoped. It's not been a disaster, but WWDC 2024 turned out to be the one thing Apple typically tries to avoid doing -- overpromising and underdelivering. Nearly a year later, many of the promised Siri features are still missing in action. Considering Apple was already late to the party with AI, and the troubles it's had, the pressure is on at WWDC 2025. It's make or break, and if Apple doesn't ease the biggest concerns about Apple Intelligence then it risks it ending up like Siri did 10 years ago. The biggest issue with Apple Intelligence is that Apple realized AI was going to be a big deal much later than everyone else. Apple wasn't ignoring AI, but in the years before ChatGPT exploded in popularity, the company wasn't that interested in investing large amounts of money into AI development -- especially with no clear end goal. According to a report from Bloomberg, it wasn't until after ChatGPT arrived that Apple's software chief Craig Federighi used generative AI for himself and realized how useful a tool generative AI could be. But by that point Apple was seriously far behind its rivals, and wouldn't be able to catch up easily. This is apparently where the main problems with Siri come in, since Apple attempted to catch up by tacking the new LLM-powered Siri onto the older voice assistant. This hasn't worked out, not only because of the delays but also because it apparently caused a bunch of problems that have been described as "whack-a-mole." All that inevitably made the controversial rollout of Apple Intelligence even more problematic. Not because the features that were released were bad, though things like news summaries proved too problematic to keep around. Apple Intelligence itself didn't land until iOS 18.1 arrived in late October, a month after iOS 18 and the iPhone 16 were released. iOS 18.2 was where the real improvements came into play, and that didn't arrive until late December. iOS 18.3 and 18.4 landed throughout the first few months of 2025, but by that point the number of useful new features had dropped dramatically. The problem wasn't the state of Apple Intelligence, though, and more of how Apple handled it. Simply put, it looked like Apple didn't want to be seen lagging behind its rivals, then overestimated what it could accomplish. WWDC is where Apple tells us what's going on with all its software, and it would be a mistake not to give Apple Intelligence the attention it needs. This is the first anniversary of its reveal, and despite all the problems Apple can't afford to be seen ignoring it. I'm not saying that WWDC needs to be an all-Apple Intelligence show. Google I/O did that, and it was far too much AI for any normal person to handle. But that doesn't mean Apple can brush AI to the wayside and treat it like Siri was treated for so many years. If that happens, Apple might as well be throwing in the towel on the AI race. We all know that the company is behind the likes of Google and OpenAI, but that doesn't mean the company's AI ambitions are dead. There's plenty of time to improve, and potentially catch up. In a best-case scenario Apple would admit that it dropped the ball with Apple Intelligence, and pledges to do better going forward. I don't see that happening. Apple is not known for willingly admitting its mistakes. But I also don't see Apple spending a great deal of time on AI either. Not just because it has a bunch of major design revamps to get us through in a keynote that can only be so long. But also because I'm sure Apple doesn't want to risk making the same mistakes as last year. No doubt we'll be hearing a lot of impressive specs about Apple Intelligence and its adoption, and maybe some reveals on different smaller features that may be on the way. And that should be enough. AI isn't the focus of this year's releases based on what we've heard, and it shouldn't dominate the show. But it does still need attention and improvements so it can continue to grow. Apple has already made plenty of mistakes with AI, from jumping on the bandwagon late to screwing up the launch of the features when they were ready. So it's imperative that the company get itself into gear, and come up with an adequate strategy for future updates and AI features. WWDC is going to be the starting point for all of that, and the attention Apple Intelligence gets at the show is going to lay the groundwork for the next few years of Apple AI rollouts. And while we can't expect Apple to roll out another wave of announcements like the ones we saw last year, it needs to avoid ignoring the topic completely. Otherwise, if AI is just going to get tossed to the side because of some early hurdles, then Apple probably shouldn't have bothered investing in it in the first place.

Apple's WWDC could be a flop for AI -- but 4 major Apple Intelligence updates are on the horizon

Apple has fallen behind the competition, and that could continue a little longer All eyes are on Apple right now. As we approach WWDC -- the company's yearly developer conference -- there is an expectation that Apple will put a big focus on AI. However, that just might not be the case. In a new report from Bloomberg, it was suggested that Apple, despite a so-far weak attempt in the AI world with Apple Intelligence, wouldn't be bringing much news to the AI front at WWDC. Apple needs a comeback. But that probably won't be happening at this year's WWDC. People within the company believe that the conference may be a letdown from an AI standpoint," Mark Gurman, the author of the Bloomberg article, said. "Others familiar with the company's planned announcements worry they could make Apple's shortcomings even more obvious." Gurman goes on to highlight that this year's WWDC is likely to be on a smaller scale to the previous two years (one launching Apple's Vision Pro headset and the other announcing Apple Intelligence). Instead, it is suggested that Apple will take a year off from big announcements, coming back with a bang in 2026 to make waves in the world of AI. A bold strategy in an industry that moves as fast as AI. This is not to say there will be no news. Updates to Apple's Foundation Models (part of Apple Intelligence and a tool for developers) are on the cards, and Apple could surprise with other AI-related updates. However, for Apple fans, it's not all bad news. Gurman, who has built up a reputation for his accurate predictions around Apple, highlighted a list of exciting AI projects that the company is working on. According to Gurman, Apple is working on a complete redesign of Siri's architecture. This would end with it being similar to the ChatGPT voice mode, with plans to finally give Siri an effective conversational interface. The Apple Shortcuts app has been around for a while now, and Apple is reportedly working on a big update for it. Shortcuts let users create actions, such as launching specific features within apps, automatically opening playlists, and other concrete actions. The new version (which has supposedly been in the works for a while now) will let consumers create those actions using Apple Intelligence models. This, for now, is somewhat vague. However, it likely means a more advanced selection system, or the ability to open specific programs via Apple Intelligence. Given the nickname 'Mulberry', this would be a completely designed health app from Apple. The project remains deep in development, so it will likely be a while before we see it. Gurman suggests that it could be part of a spring update to Apple's iOS 26. This probably won't come as a surprise. Since its launch, ChatGPT has been the formula to replicate in the world of AI. Google, one of Apple's biggest competitors, has achieved it with Gemini, and Apple will want in too. Dubbed 'knowledge' by some Apple employees, it is already plagued by a lot of problems that happened with Siri when it was overhauled. In other words, this could take some time before we see it in action. However, Apple might equally follow in the footsteps of some of its AI competitors, releasing a test version of the product. Unfinished in nature, but out and available to the world.

WWDC 2025 -- Apple can't afford to take a 'gap year' on AI

What happens if there's very little Apple Intelligence news at WWDC? When talk first surfaced in March that this year's iOS update would feature very little in the way of consumer-facing Apple Intelligence features, it seemed hard to believe. Apple had put such an emphasis on AI at its 2024 developers conference, you would expect a similar push for WWDC 2025 -- especially after Apple Intelligence didn't exactly come roaring out of the gate. Well, a lot has changed in the ensuing months, including the possibility that the update we thought was going to be iOS 19 will instead be renamed iOS 26. But just ahead of next week's WWDC, it seems the possibility of Apple Intelligence being a major focus has become even more remote. That's my takeaway after a recent column by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, in which the well-sourced reporter contends that Apple "will do little at WWDC to show it's catching up to leaders like OpenAI and Google." Developers will reportedly get access to Apple's large language models to incorporate AI features into their apps, and we've heard talk that some features, like new iPhone battery management capabilities, will tap into AI. But otherwise, words like "letdown" and "gap year" are being bandied about. On the surface, it still seems like a remarkable reversal on Apple's part, particularly in light of last month's AI-heavy Google I/O event, where one of Apple's chief rivals spent two hours demonstrating just how far ahead of Apple it is when it comes to integrating artificial intelligence into everyday activities. To go light on Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2025 would seem to relegate Apple to also-run status. Even so, if you look a little more closely at where Apple is with its AI efforts, the company may have no other choice. A charitable recap of the year since Apple previewed its AI tools would describe the efforts as "hit and miss." As I've noted before, there are some Apple Intelligence features I really like, such as email summaries of long back-and-forth exchanges and Visual Intelligence, especially now that the image recognition feature works on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max after initially being limited to iPhone 16 models. But for the most part, Apple Intelligence additions like Writing Tools, Image Playground and Genmoji are basic at their best and frivolous at their worst. I also get the sense that they haven't added much over time, at least if my experiences with Image Playground and Memory Movies are anything to go by. As a result, it's too easy to just ignore Apple Intelligence features -- to go about using your iPhone like you always have. That's not Apple's biggest miscue with Apple Intelligence, though. Instead, the biggest problem is that some promised features -- like an AI-infused revamp of the Siri personal assistant -- never actually materialized. We were told Siri was going to work across multiple apps and understand our personal data, but now Apple says it needs more time to get that feature working properly. At this point, we may not see substantial changes to Siri until 2026. And that might explain why Apple is so reluctant to make much of a fuss over Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2025. The company faced some serious backlash for previewing AI features that weren't ready to ship last year. It probably decided that a repeat would further damage its credibility, which could have greater long-term consequences than if it shows off very little. If there's any consolation to this year without significant Apple Intelligence updates, it sounds from Gurman's reporting that Apple has plenty of irons in the AI fire. The company is reportedly working on a new version of Siri's architecture so that the personal assistant can better execute those features we were promised last year. The Shortcuts app is getting a revamp, too, that will work with more Apple Intelligent features. Beyond that, there's an AI-powered health coaching feature and an Apple-built chatbot in development. The trouble is, none of this stuff is likely to be ready this year -- at least not to the point where Apple likely feels confident about showing it off in public again. So we're back to a WWDC 2025 keynote that's going to largely focus on massive software redesigns, with AI playing a supporting role at most. I can certainly understand Apple's motivation for keeping things low-key, and I appreciate how events like this are geared toward accentuating the positives, rather than dwelling on what went wrong. Still, if Apple's looking to re-establish credibility, it should address the AI-shaped elephant in the room next week. I'm not talking about Apple executive Craig Federighi appearing on stage at WWDC in a hairshirt or cuts to other Apple higher-ups in the crowd rending their garments in penitence. But acknowledging publicly that Apple is taking a step back to make sure the next major AI feature push is done right would restore some confidence in Apple Intelligence's future. A WWDC 2025 keynote without much in the way of Apple Intelligence isn't going to do much to dispel the notion that Apple's an also-ran in the AI race. But the way you minimize that perception is to let people know you're coming back strong in 2026.

3 Apple Intelligence features we know are coming at WWDC 2025 and 3 I'd like to see as well

As WWDC 2025 (Apple's World Wide Developer Conference) comes into view (it takes place on Monday, June 9) there is a lot riding on Apple to get it right with Apple Intelligence this time after the fallout from last year's WWDC when Apple promised a lot of new features, but failed to deliver the really important ones, like a new AI-powered Siri. Last year, Apple made the classic mistake of demonstrating features that it hadn't really got working as if they were real. When it became apparent that Apple wouldn't be able to get the features ready in time, Tim Cook's technology giant had to pull them from release and was left with AI-flavored egg on their Genmoji-shaped faces. To be fair, Apple did manage to release some of its Apple Intelligence features, like the writing tools, ChatGPT integration, notifications, and the aforementioned Genmojis, but these new AI features already seemed out of date when they launched because of the warp speed of AI innovation. While Apple was trying to get us excited about emojis featuring our faces, the rest of the world was chatting with AI using their voice in Gemini Live and ChatGPT's voice mode. Apple's development speed, with its traditional once-a-year operating system update, suddenly looked glacial compared to OpenAI and Google, which seem to have taken over the job of writing our future. In some ways, WWDC 2025 is Apple's chance to balance the books, reset its ambitions for AI, and show us how, by focusing on great hardware and software integration, it can still be relevant in the modern age of AI, because it can. After all, Google Gemini or ChatGPT runs just as well on an iPhone 16 as it does on a Pixel 9 or a Samsung Galaxy S25. Thanks to the ever-reliable Marc Gurman and his Power On newsletter, there are some Apple Intelligence features that we think are definitely going to be announced at WWDC 2025, so let's take a look at those first: Apple will be opening up its existing Apple Intelligence models to third-party developers. This will let iPhone app developers access the AI features on iPhone that we're already familiar with, like writing summaries, or even use Apple's models to create their own innovative AI features. Apple's existing AI models have about 3 billion parameters, which sounds like a lot, but that's far less than the cloud-powered AI's from OpenAI and Google. However, Apple's models are perfect for lightweight tasks that can be done on the iPhone without needing to access the cloud. A new battery management system doesn't sound like the most interesting thing in the world, but anything that helps us get more life out of an iPhone battery sounds like a good idea. Details are sparse at the moment, but the idea would be that Apple Intelligence will analyze how you use your device and make clever adjustments to help you conserve energy. Now this one sounds genuinely exciting! It's tied to an update to the AirPods software and iOS 19 (or iOS 26, its new name), but it is going to use AI to help in live language translation through your AirPods. This may sound more like science fiction than reality, but if Apple can get this working flawlessly, it could be a feature that sets Apple apart from its competitors. In addition to all these new AI features, we're expecting Apple to quietly rebrand a lot of its existing features in apps like Safari and Photos as "AI-powered." So, that's what Marc Gurman thinks we'll get for sure, but Apple will be bound to have a few surprises for us up its sleeve on the day. Here's what I hope we'll see as well: Surprisingly, one of the biggest cheers from the crowd at the last Samsung AI event was when it demonstrated how AI could effortlessly reduce the background noise, like wind or chatter, in videos using a tool called Audio Eraser. I think people cheered because they could actually see an example of AI that they'd actually use! Apple has this feature already for the iPhone 16, but it's only available if you edit a video clip, and it's tucked away in various settings and not easily accessible. If Apple can make it easier to use and work on any audio or video clips, then I think it would have a guaranteed hit on its hands. If we can't have an AI-powered Siri quite yet, then at least make it easier to integrate existing AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini into iOS. Yes, Siri currently calls on ChatGPT when a question becomes too complicated, but the process feels a bit awkward and slow. How about integrating ChatGPT more directly into iOS so that you can use it for performing functions on the iPhone, like opening apps and finding options in Settings? I'm sorry Apple, but you are lagging behind Google and Samsung significantly in the area of AI image manipulation. When we compared Galaxy AI's photo editing tool to Apple Intelligence's Clean Up, the results weren't even close. People expect so much more from AI these days. We want to be able to produce photorealistic images from prompts, not cute AI graphics in Image Studio that don't look realistic. And when we edit photos, we want the ability to be able to remove objects from an image and add new ones flawlessly using AI. Apple needs to step up its game significantly here, and I don't think it's too much to ask that it does it at this year's WWDC 2025.

"It's 5GB of pure bloatware": Apple Intelligence unlikely to win over Mac users at WWDC -- Here's why

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) takes place on Monday, June 9, and the company is set to spotlight its biggest software updates of the year -- but will any of its new Apple Intelligence features win over frustrated Mac users? Apple Intelligence may have been the star of last year's show, but the platform, pitched as "AI for the rest of us," has mostly failed to capture the awe of Mac, iPhone, or iPad users, with the one update everyone really wants to see is nowhere in sight. There's no doubt that Apple will liberally flaunt the term AI during this year's WWDC, but a claimed lack of any killer AI features to show could highlight how far ahead Apple's competition is. However, to some, that's a good thing. Take a look online and you'll see many Mac users souring on AI, and until Apple is ready to change their minds with something truly groundbreaking, it might be best to keep it out of the limelight a little longer. See also: Best Apple deals in June 2025 With WWDC 2025 now just a week away, we're getting our last, and arguably most exciting, wave of rumors about what to expect. The highlight, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, will be a major rebrand of Apple's operating systems along with the biggest visual overhaul since iOS 7. For Mac users, that means the next OS update will be macOS 26, which will likely feature tweaked app icons and potentially changes to the overall UI, like more transparent elements. Rumors indicate that Apple is taking a lot of inspiration from visionOS for this sweeping visual overhaul across its platforms, giving a rough idea of what to expect. What we're not expecting to see, however, is any major Apple Intelligence developments. Apple is expected to debut an AI battery optimization tool, which sounds useful, and potentially some other minor updates, but the big, large language model (LLM) Siri update we've all been waiting for is unlikely to make an appearance at WWDC. That big Siri update is the AI feature its users really need. While it's disappointing we have to keep waiting for it, a lack of focus on AI in the meantime might actually be a good thing for Apple, judging by a cold response to AI from many Mac users. Apple was undoubtedly late to the game in consumer AI, falling short of the innovations Google, Meta, and OpenAI have been announcing over recent years. OpenAI is even partnering with former Apple design chief Jony Ive to develop its own in-house AI device. Considering all that, one might think Apple is in hot water, dropping the ball on AI like it has. However, that's assuming Apple users actually want a boatload of AI features on their devices, which might not be the case. For instance, a user in one Reddit thread referred to Apple Intelligence as "5GB of pure bloatware," complaining that trying to disable or remove the feature can lead to bugs. A user in another thread expressed frustration about not being able to completely remove Apple Intelligence, commenting, "Some of us don't like a service shoved down our throats we never asked for, and don't need. Sure, it can be turned off, but it should be optional to be installed to begin with. I'd like to use those few gigs of storage." One user even described Apple's AI as "all hype, no value." Comment from r/MacOS Even users who don't outright dislike Apple Intelligence see little use in it, like one commenter who said: "I pretty much never use writing tools, even before they were integrated, so that's been barely used. Sucks that what the majority of Apple AI is." Another user pointed out the core of the issue: "Siri still seems dumb as a rock." All of this effectively amounts to a lack of enthusiasm for AI in general, at least among Mac users. It makes me wonder, would Apple be better off differentiating itself by backing off on AI, at least until the new-and-improved Siri is ready? So far, Apple Intelligence seems to be mimicking competitors' AI offerings, only with fewer features and years behind. That strategy clearly isn't winning over Mac users, though, who seem to be really looking for practical AI tools and a Siri update, not gimmicks like AI-generated emojis. Instead of trying to convince us it's an AI brand now, maybe Apple could woo fans by showing it's focusing on launching AI tools that prioritize genuine usefulness and user privacy.

Apple plays catch-up

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off Monday with what is becoming a familiar problem for the Cupertino tech giant: The company that once set the pace for consumer technology finds itself playing catch-up in the industry's most important race. While Apple will unveil sweeping visual redesigns across its operating systems -- including a new "digital glass" interface inspired by its Vision Pro headset -- the AI announcements are expected to be underwhelming compared to the rapid-fire innovations competitors have unleashed in recent months. The contrast with Google I/O just three weeks ago couldn't be starker. Google's developer conference was a showcase of AI muscle-flexing: new models that generate music in real-time, realistic video creation from simple prompts, coding assistants that can tackle entire backlogs, and text-to-speech capabilities with customizable voices and accents. Google even introduced tools that can browse the web and use software under user direction -- early examples of the autonomous AI agents that many see as the next frontier. Apple's most significant AI announcement, meanwhile, will be opening its foundation models to third-party developers. But these models pack just 3 billion parameters -- a fraction of the complexity found in the latest releases from OpenAI, Google, or even Apple's own internal tools, which are rumored to reach into the trillions of parameters. Bloomberg reported more than a dozen other small updates, including rebranding some existing Safari and Photos features as "AI-powered" and introducing live translation for phone calls and AirPods -- capabilities Google has offered on Android for years. A new AI-powered battery optimization mode might arrive later, developed alongside the slimmer iPhone 17 expected this fall. Perhaps most telling is what won't be announced: the much-anticipated Siri overhaul that Apple promised last year has been indefinitely delayed. The "LLM Siri" that could finally make Apple's assistant conversational like ChatGPT remains woefully behind schedule, according to reports. Apple's AI health service and revamped Health app have been pushed to late 2026. Instead, Apple will lean heavily on what it does best: design. The new "Solarium" interface will bring transparency and light effects across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and other operating systems. The company is also switching to year-based naming (hence the "26" designations for software launching later this year) in what appears to be a branding maneuver to project forward momentum. The Phone app will get its first major redesign since 2007, combining contacts, recent calls, and voicemails into a single scrollable window. Messages will add polling and background images to compete with WhatsApp. A new centralized Games app will attempt to position Apple devices as serious gaming platforms, though it's unlikely to challenge Nintendo or Sony's dominance. The hardware struggles are perhaps even more concerning than the AI delays. Apple once owned the premium device space, but competitors are now encroaching on its turf. Meta has sold 2 million Ray-Ban smart glasses since 2023 and plans to produce 10 million units annually by 2026. Meanwhile, OpenAI has partnered with Jony Ive -- Apple's former design chief who created the iPhone and iPad -- on plans for 100 million AI "companions" by the end of next year. These aren't just software competitors; they're direct threats to Apple's hardware dominance. But these incremental improvements come at a perilous moment for Apple that extends far beyond Monday's keynote. The company has suffered a brutal 2025: its stock has dropped 20%, making it the worst performer among the "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks and raising questions about whether it even belongs in that elite group anymore. A damaging legal defeat in the Epic Games case threatens its lucrative App Store revenue model, with a federal judge finding Apple in contempt for willfully violating court orders. Mounting tariff costs will add an estimated $900 million in expenses this quarter alone, forcing the company to rapidly reconfigure its China-centric supply chain. Perhaps most troubling, Apple's iPhone shipments in China -- once a growth engine -- cratered by more than 20% in late 2024, according to Counterpoint Research, dropping the company to fifth place in the world's largest smartphone market. The company can't even leverage its AI features as a differentiator there, since ChatGPT integration had to be stripped from Chinese iPhones to comply with local regulations. Apple's bet on taking a "thoughtful" approach to AI -- emphasizing privacy and on-device processing over raw capability -- probably has merit in the long term. But tech cycles move fast, and the company risks ceding significant ground to competitors who are shipping powerful AI features today, not in 2026 or beyond.

Apple under pressure to shine after AI stumble

Pressure is on Apple to show it hasn't lost its magic despite broken promises to ramp up iPhones with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) as rivals race ahead with the technology. Apple will showcase plans for its coveted devices and the software powering them at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicking off Monday in Silicon Valley. The event comes a year after the tech titan said a suite of AI features it dubbed "Apple Intelligence" was heading for iPhones, including an improvement of its much criticized Siri voice assistant. "Apple advertised a lot of features as if they were going to be available, and it just didn't happen," noted Emarketer senior analyst Gadjo Sevilla. Instead, Apple delayed the rollout of the Siri upgrade, with hopes that it will be available in time for the next iPhone release, expected in the fall. "I don't think there is going to be that much of a celebratory tone at WWDC," the analyst told AFP. "It could be more of a way for Apple to recover some credibility by showing where they're headed." Industry insiders will be watching to see whether Apple addresses the AI stumble or focuses on less splashy announcements, including a rumored overhaul of its operating systems for its line of devices. "The bottom line is Apple seemed to underestimate the AI shift, then over-promised features, and is now racing to catch up," Gene Munster and Brian Baker of Deepwater Asset Management wrote in a WWDC preview note. Rumors also include talk that Apple may add GenAI partnerships with Google or Perplexity to an OpenAI alliance announced a year ago. 'Double black eye' Infusing its lineup with AI is only one of Apple's challenges. Developers, who build apps and tools to run on the company's products, may be keen for Apple to loosen its tight control of access to iPhones. "There's still a lot of strife between Apple and developers," Sevilla said. "Taking 30% commissions from them and then failing to deliver on promises for new functionality -- that's a double black eye." A lawsuit by Fortnite maker Epic Games ended with Apple being ordered to allow outside payment systems to be used at the US App Store, but developers may want more, according to the analyst. "Apple does need to give an olive branch to the developer community, which has been long-suffering," Sevilla said. "They can't seem to thrive within the restrictive guardrails that Apple has been putting up for decades now." As AI is incorporated into Apple software, the company may need to give developers more ability to sync apps to the platform, according to Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi. "Maybe with AI it's the first time that Apple needs to rethink the open versus closed ecosystem," Milanesi said. Apple on defensive Adding to the WWDC buildup is that the legendary designer behind the iPhone, Jony Ive, has joined with ChatGPT maker OpenAI to create a potential rival device for engaging with AI. "It puts Apple on the defensive because the key designer for your most popular product is saying there is something better than the iPhone," Sevilla said. While WWDC has typically been a software-focused event, Apple might unveil new hardware to show it is still innovating, the analyst speculated. And while unlikely to come up at WWDC, Apple has to deal with tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump in his trade war with China, a key market for sales growth as well as the place where most iPhones are made. Trump has also threatened to hit Apple with tariffs if iPhone production wasn't moved to the US, which analysts say is impossible given the costs and capabilities. "The whole idea of having an American-made iPhone is a pipe dream; you'd have to rewrite the rules of global economics," said Sevilla. One of the things Apple has going for it is that its fans are known for their loyalty and likely to remain faithful regardless of how much time it takes the company to get its AI act together, Milanesi said. "Do people want a smarter Siri? Hell yeah," Milanesi said. "But if you are in Apple, you're in Apple and you'll continue to buy their stuff."

Why We're Not Getting That AI-Powered Siri Anytime Soon

If you were under the assumption that Siri was soon going to be supercharged with AI, you wouldn't be alone. In fact, Apple has advertised as much since last WWDC, showing off its ChatGPT-like assistant in commercials and promotional materials. It's been nearly a year since WWDC 2024, and that new Siri is still not here. The thing is, it likely won't be for a long time. How long is anyone's guess (I've been tracking the delays here), but one thing seems likely: Apple is probably not showing off AI Siri at next week's WWDC 2025. In a report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last month, he describes a chaotic situation regarding Apple's AI department. The piece is a fascinating and in-depth look at Apple's AI woes, and I won't give a detailed summary of the entire article. However, I will briefly discuss what's going on, and how it related to AI Siri. Executive leadership at Apple, including senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi, didn't believe AI was worth the investment, and didn't want to allocate resources away from Apple's core software components in order to develop the technology. But once Federighi used ChatGPT following its late 2022 launch, he did a 180. He and other Apple executives began meeting with the big AI companies to learn everything they could, and pushed for iOS 18 to have "as many AI-powered features as possible." While Apple's AI department already existed before this scramble (the company had poached Google's artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea), the engineers simply couldn't match the quality or accuracy of the tools provided by other companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google, who had a huge head start on generative AI. That lag manifested in two ways: First, many of the AI features that Apple did bring to market were half-baked. Apple Intelligence's notification summaries feature, for example, infamously made some major mistakes, such as "summarizing" a BBC news alert to say that United Healthcare shooting suspect Luigi Mangione had shot himself. (Apple later disabled the feature for news alerts.) Second, because Apple couldn't rely on its own tech to carry Apple Intelligence, they outsourced some tech to another AI company. While there was much debate about which company they should work with (Giannandrea wanted to work with Google and bring Gemini to iOS), Apple eventually settled for ChatGPT -- which is why OpenAI's bot is built into your iPhone today. Apple's lack of AI focus meant they missed the rush to acquire GPUs -- the main processing unit used for training and running AI models. They also have strict privacy policies when it comes to user data, which severely limits what data they can use to train their models. (Some might say that's actually a good thing, and pause to think about the companies that do have a plethora of data to train with.) While Apple was able to get some AI features working "well" enough to ship, Siri was never among them. In order to bring AI to Siri, the company had to split Siri's "brain" in two -- one featuring the existing code, used for traditional Siri tasks like setting timers and making calls, and the other for AI. While the AI side in a vacuum can work, integrating it with the other half of Siri's brain is problematic, and is the cause of much of the delay. But rather than wait until Apple figured out how to get AI Siri working to actually show off its new features, the company went ahead and heavily marketed them. During WWDC 2024, we saw prerecorded demos of Siri taking complex requests and generating helpful answers by accessing both a knowledge base about the user in question, as well as an awareness of what was happening on-screen. A prime example was an Apple employee asking Siri about their mom's travel itinerary: Siri dove through the employee's messages with their mom to draw up the plans. Apple even hired Bella Ramsey of The Last of Us to promote AI Siri features: In the commercial, Ramsey sees someone at a party they recognize but don't remember the name of. Ramsey then asks Siri "What's the name of the guy I had a meeting with a couple of months ago at Cafe Granel?" Siri immediately responds with the acquaintance's name, pulling from a calendar entry. Ramsey doesn't need to say the exact date or where to pull the information from, since AI Siri is presumably contextually aware, and can understand vague responses. (Apple has since deleted the ad from its YouTube account.) Since then, AI features have trickled in on various iOS 18 updates, but not AI Siri. We've been following reports (mostly from Gurman) that Apple's engineers were having trouble getting it to work, and each delay pushed AI Siri's release to the next major iOS 18 update. At one point, we thought it could come with iOS 18.4: As Gurman reports in this latest piece, that was the plan, but Federighi himself was surprised to see that the AI Siri features didn't work on a beta for 18.4. Siri's big AI upgrade was delayed again, now "indefinitely." According to Gurman's sources, there are no plans to announce Siri's new features alongside iOS 19 (or iOS 26, if rumors at to be believed) at next week's WWDC event. While the goal is to get AI Siri out for iOS 26 at some point, the situation is dire -- Siri's features reportedly don't work a third of the time, and every time you fix one of Siri's major bugs, "three more crop up." Gurman's sources say Apple has an AI department in Zurich working on a new LLM-based Siri that scraps the two-sided brain of the current assistant. Siri also has a new leader, Mike Rockwell, who replaced Giannandrea this spring. Some sources even say that Apple's internal chatbot is now rivaling ChatGPT, which could prove useful if integrated with Siri. There are reasons to be mildly optimistic about Siri's long-term future, but there's no denying that the last year has been a disaster. If you're excited for Siri's next big development, lower your expectations for the short-term.

Apple under pressure to shine after AI stumble

San Francisco (United States) (AFP) - Pressure is on Apple to show it hasn't lost its magic despite broken promises to ramp up iPhones with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) as rivals race ahead with the technology. Apple will showcase plans for its coveted devices and the software powering them at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicking off Monday in Silicon Valley. The event comes a year after the tech titan said a suite of AI features it dubbed "Apple Intelligence" was heading for iPhones, including an improvement of its much criticized Siri voice assistant. "Apple advertised a lot of features as if they were going to be available, and it just didn't happen," noted Emarketer senior analyst Gadjo Sevilla. Instead, Apple delayed the rollout of the Siri upgrade, with hopes that it will be available in time for the next iPhone release, expected in the fall. "I don't think there is going to be that much of a celebratory tone at WWDC," the analyst told AFP. "It could be more of a way for Apple to recover some credibility by showing where they're headed." Industry insiders will be watching to see whether Apple addresses the AI stumble or focuses on less splashy announcements, including a rumored overhaul of its operating systems for its line of devices. "The bottom line is Apple seemed to underestimate the AI shift, then over-promised features, and is now racing to catch up," Gene Munster and Brian Baker of Deepwater Asset Management wrote in a WWDC preview note. Rumors also include talk that Apple may add GenAI partnerships with Google or Perplexity to an OpenAI alliance announced a year ago. 'Double black eye' Infusing its lineup with AI is only one of Apple's challenges. Developers, who build apps and tools to run on the company's products, may be keen for Apple to loosen its tight control of access to iPhones. "There's still a lot of strife between Apple and developers," Sevilla said. "Taking 30 percent commissions from them and then failing to deliver on promises for new functionality -- that's a double black eye." A lawsuit by Fortnite maker Epic Games ended with Apple being ordered to allow outside payment systems to be used at the US App Store, but developers may want more, according to the analyst. "Apple does need to give an olive branch to the developer community, which has been long-suffering," Sevilla said. "They can't seem to thrive within the restrictive guardrails that Apple has been putting up for decades now." As AI is incorporated into Apple software, the company may need to give developers more ability to sync apps to the platform, according to Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi. "Maybe with AI it's the first time that Apple needs to rethink the open versus closed ecosystem," Milanesi said. Apple on defensive Adding to the WWDC buildup is that the legendary designer behind the iPhone, Jony Ive, has joined with ChatGPT maker OpenAI to create a potential rival device for engaging with AI. "It puts Apple on the defensive because the key designer for your most popular product is saying there is something better than the iPhone," Sevilla said. While WWDC has typically been a software-focused event, Apple might unveil new hardware to show it is still innovating, the analyst speculated. And while unlikely to come up at WWDC, Apple has to deal with tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump in his trade war with China, a key market for sales growth as well as the place where most iPhones are made. Trump has also threatened to hit Apple with tariffs if iPhone production wasn't moved to the US, which analysts say is impossible given the costs and capabilities. "The whole idea of having an American-made iPhone is a pipe dream; you'd have to rewrite the rules of global economics," said Sevilla. One of the things Apple has going for it is that its fans are known for their loyalty and likely to remain faithful regardless of how much time it takes the company to get its AI act together, Milanesi said. "Do people want a smarter Siri? Hell yeah," Milanesi said. "But if you are in Apple, you're in Apple and you'll continue to buy their stuff."

Apple's WWDC Stakes Have Never Been Higher

But as WWDC 2025 approaches, the stakes feel dramatically higher than usual. With tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI sprinting ahead in artificial intelligence, the pressure is on Apple not only to catch up -- but to prove it still belongs in the conversation. What we can expect This year's WWDC is shaping up less like a grand unveiling and more like a make-or-break update. Apple already introduced Apple Intelligence at last year's WWDC, promising privacy-first generative features and a smarter Siri. But in the year since, very little has materialized. The features arrived late, rolled out slowly, and failed to generate much excitement. Many of them -- notification summaries, writing tools, and image playgrounds -- have been problematic and remain a disappointment compared with the competition. There are suggestions that we may see updates that make Apple Intelligence slightly more accessible to third-party developers -- such as new APIs for summarization, task automation, or suggested replies. And Apple could announce that it's bringing Google Gemini on board as an option for users in the same way it announced ChatGPT integration last year.

Apple under pressure to shine after AI stumble

Industry insiders will be watching to see whether Apple addresses the AI stumble or focuses on less splashy announcements, including a rumored overhaul of its operating systems for its line of devices. "The bottom line is Apple seemed to underestimate the AI shift, then over-promised features, and is now racing to catch up," Gene Munster and Brian Baker of Deepwater Asset Management wrote in a WWDC preview note.Pressure is on Apple to show it hasn't lost its magic despite broken promises to ramp up iPhones with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) as rivals race ahead with the technology. Apple will showcase plans for its coveted devices and the software powering them at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicking off Monday in Silicon Valley. The event comes a year after the tech titan said a suite of AI features it dubbed "Apple Intelligence" was heading for iPhones, including an improvement of its much criticized Siri voice assistant. "Apple advertised a lot of features as if they were going to be available, and it just didn't happen," noted Emarketer senior analyst Gadjo Sevilla. Instead, Apple delayed the rollout of the Siri upgrade, with hopes that it will be available in time for the next iPhone release, expected in the fall. "I don't think there is going to be that much of a celebratory tone at WWDC," the analyst told AFP. "It could be more of a way for Apple to recover some credibility by showing where they're headed." Industry insiders will be watching to see whether Apple addresses the AI stumble or focuses on less splashy announcements, including a rumored overhaul of its operating systems for its line of devices. "The bottom line is Apple seemed to underestimate the AI shift, then over-promised features, and is now racing to catch up," Gene Munster and Brian Baker of Deepwater Asset Management wrote in a WWDC preview note. Rumors also include talk that Apple may add GenAI partnerships with Google or Perplexity to an OpenAI alliance announced a year ago. 'Double black eye' Infusing its lineup with AI is only one of Apple's challenges. Developers, who build apps and tools to run on the company's products, may be keen for Apple to loosen its tight control of access to iPhones. "There's still a lot of strife between Apple and developers," Sevilla said. "Taking 30% commissions from them and then failing to deliver on promises for new functionality-that's a double black eye." A lawsuit by Fortnite maker Epic Games ended with Apple being ordered to allow outside payment systems to be used at the US App Store, but developers may want more, according to the analyst. "Apple does need to give an olive branch to the developer community, which has been long-suffering," Sevilla said. "They can't seem to thrive within the restrictive guardrails that Apple has been putting up for decades now." As AI is incorporated into Apple software, the company may need to give developers more ability to sync apps to the platform, according to Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi. "Maybe with AI it's the first time that Apple needs to rethink the open versus closed ecosystem," Milanesi said. Apple on defensive Adding to the WWDC buildup is that the legendary designer behind the iPhone, Jony Ive, has joined with ChatGPT maker OpenAI to create a potential rival device for engaging with AI. "It puts Apple on the defensive because the key designer for your most popular product is saying there is something better than the iPhone," Sevilla said. While WWDC has typically been a software-focused event, Apple might unveil new hardware to show it is still innovating, the analyst speculated. And while unlikely to come up at WWDC, Apple has to deal with tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump in his trade war with China, a key market for sales growth as well as the place where most iPhones are made. Trump has also threatened to hit Apple with tariffs if iPhone production wasn't moved to the US, which analysts say is impossible given the costs and capabilities. "The whole idea of having an American-made iPhone is a pipe dream; you'd have to rewrite the rules of global economics," said Sevilla. One of the things Apple has going for it is that its fans are known for their loyalty and likely to remain faithful regardless of how much time it takes the company to get its AI act together, Milanesi said. "Do people want a smarter Siri? Hell yeah," Milanesi said. "But if you are in Apple, you're in Apple and you'll continue to buy their stuff."

Apple's AI Struggles To Keep Pace With Rivals Ahead Of WWDC 2025 - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

As the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) looms, Apple Inc. AAPL seems to be grappling to keep up with AI frontrunners such as OpenAI and Google, despite its best efforts. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, in his latest weekly "Power On" revealed that Apple's AI platform, Apple Intelligence, has failed to meet expectations since its launch a year ago. Initially, the platform was hailed as a potential game-changer in the AI industry, but it soon became clear that it was more about marketing than revolutionary innovation. Features of Apple Intelligence, such as Writing Tools, Genmoji, and Priority Notifications, were found to be useful but not as groundbreaking as those offered by competitors. The launch of the new Siri voice assistant, a crucial element of Apple Intelligence, was put on hold indefinitely due to technical and testing problems. Also Read: Apple's 2027 Vision: Foldable iPhones, Smart Glasses, And AI Innovations With the first anniversary of Apple Intelligence nearing, Apple is under pressure to create a buzz around AI at the WWDC on June 9. However, industry insiders predict that the conference may fall short in terms of AI. The recent advancements made by OpenAI and Google have heightened the competition and cemented their status as AI leaders. Apple's most notable AI announcement at the WWDC is likely to be the release of its Foundation Models to third-party developers, allowing them to leverage Apple's on-device technology for lightweight tasks like text summarization. Despite these hurdles, Apple reportedly plans to persuade consumers of its AI innovation at WWDC 2026. However, with competitors advancing swiftly, taking a year off could prove to be a gamble. Read Next Apple's AI Team Undergoes Major Restructuring Amidst Performance Concerns Image: Shutterstock AAPLApple Inc$200.290.17%Stock Score Locked: Edge Members Only Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Unlock RankingsEdge RankingsMomentum40.93Growth32.97Quality77.54Value8.78Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Apple Faces Mounting Challenges as Stock Slumps | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. Expected to dominate headlines at Apple's WWDC, or Worldwide Developers Conference, is how far it lags its rivals in artificial intelligence (AI), according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). While competitors like Microsoft and Google have used their own developer events to highlight rapid progress in AI, Apple's event might underscore how far it still has to go in AI. Siri is long overdue for an AI revamp. Apple itself admitted recently that the upgrade is taking longer than anticipated. "Apple will be much more cautious about overpromising and will refrain from showing features that aren't yet ready for prime time," said Craig Moffett of research firm MoffettNathanson, according to the WSJ. However, AI is just one concern among several. The company is also facing tariffs that threaten its hardware profit margins. President Donald Trump also is pressuring Apple to change its overseas production model -- a supply chain strategy the company has used for two decades. Meanwhile, the company's services division, which delivers gross profit margins of 74%, is under legal scrutiny. Questions surround both App Store fees and payments Apple gets from Google for being its default search engine. "We caution that Apple has material risks to its revenue growth, margins and valuation multiple," Needham analyst Laura Martin wrote in a report, downgrading the stock to "hold." Unlike rivals Amazon, Microsoft and Google, which are monetizing AI tools, Apple isn't charging for its generative AI features. This strategy could limit near-term upside as it tries to boost sales of core hardware, especially iPhones, which have seen flat revenue for two years. "We believe that, for this stock to work, it must have the catalyst of an iPhone replacement cycle, which we do not foresee in the next 12 months," Martin added. Adding to the tension is competition from an unexpected place: OpenAI has teamed up with former Apple designer Jony Ive to develop "AI companions," a potential new class of devices that could disrupt the smartphone-dominated landscape Apple helped create. Despite a loyal user base of 2.35 billion active devices, Apple's dominance faces serious headwinds. Its AI delay is notable -- but compared to the external risks of tariffs, legal battles and OpenAI's new devices, this may be the only problem the company still fully controls, the WSJ said.