For years, Apple has been accused of being one of the biggest players in the AI arms race. Skeptics have argued that Apple’s lack of a clear AI strategy has been costly, and Wall Street analysts are concerned that the gap could begin to hurt iPhone sales.
Now, the company has unveiled what it’s billing as its biggest AI launch to date: Siri AI, which embeds new automation capabilities (fueled by a partnership with Google Gemini) into the very core of its software.
Is it enough to make people stop saying that Apple is “losing” the AI race?
To be honest, no one really knows. But the question itself may be wrong. Better yet: will Apple’s customers actually use these features and, if they do, will it help Apple’s business?
Before we answer that question, we should note that Monday’s announcements also came with interesting comments from Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering.
“Some seem to be rushing forward, they seem to be pursuing AI for AI’s sake, without looking at the people – all of us – that it is meant to serve,” Federighi said in his comments. “At Apple, our goal has always been to turn the power of advanced technology into useful and intuitive products for everyone.”
The unspoken disdain shown here seems to be a response to the criticism of Apple “behind AI” and an attempt to acknowledge the deep disagreement – and, according to some research, increasingly negative – feelings that many consumers have about the AI industry. It’s also a smart message at a time when Americans are worried that AI will take their jobs and rot their brains. Apple positions itself as the AI company on your side.
Judging by Monday’s demos, that suspension has something behind it. Siri can now uncover information buried deep in your inbox or text history and surface useful information and provide useful suggestions based on it. It can use what Apple calls screen awareness to give you context about what you’re looking at. And — using Gemini — it can pull the latest nearby information from the web and deliver it directly to your device.
Siri is also designed to work seamlessly across all Apple devices, giving users more flexibility and, like other AI chatbots, saves conversation histories so users can revisit past conversations.
By building AI functionality into its undifferentiated, ethereal assistant, Apple also has the opportunity to reap the benefits of competitors whose apps can only reach users through its App Store. For their competitors, having Apple’s AI embedded at the operating system level is a significant threat to their distribution advantage.
The key word here is “may” as this version of Siri will not be available to consumers until later this year, as a beta.
The final decision will have to wait, but it is already clear that Apple is doing everything possible to engage with its audience – whether they end up looking for it or not. Apple is obviously a hardware company, and these updates are designed to make those devices more user-friendly and convenient, keeping users attached to their devices for a while.
The contrast with competitors is instructive and perhaps the most important signal from Monday’s announcements for anyone watching where the AI industry is really headed. Take OpenAI, which, despite shipping updates at a steady pace, has struggled to define who it really sells to, shifting between consumers and businesses. Or Meta, which pours a lot of money into AI without a clear explanation of how it connects to the company’s advertising business.
Apple’s more measured approach is starting to look good by comparison – and make good financial sense. For the most part, Apple didn’t need a gangbusters AI strategy. It posted historic iPhone sales last quarter. And as questions grow about the benefits of AI and real-world applications, Apple is spending far less than its competitors — about $14 billion in planned capex this year, versus a total of $900 billion for other tech giants — while still earning big money. That revenue came from the AI industry itself through taxes on AI companies that use its App Store to place their apps.
In short, Apple spends less, does more, and has now introduced a series of AI features that – for many iPhone users – will feel indistinguishable from the other AI apps already available to them through the App Store. If that doesn’t exactly count as “winning the AI race,” it might be the smartest way to run it.
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