 "Apple joins forces with Google to power AI features and revamped Siri (Photo: Reuters)")
Apple Intelligence was rolled out with lots of promises and advancement in the AI race in 2024 featuring Writing Tools (rewriting, proofreading, summarizing), a more natural Siri, enhanced Photos (Clean Up, memories), Image Playground for creating images, and Genmoji for custom emojis. But the so called smart Siri never materialised, it has gone back and shuffled the system around which proved to be as the biggest failure on Apple’s part.
The mess was Apple Intelligence was embarrassing, as the company did its best to do its best. The expertise of Apple has always been selling its smartphones, which saw recording breaking high since the launch of iPhone 17 Pro.
Apple Intelligence less dominant
The iPhone 16 was “Built for Apple Intelligence,” but served without it. But it proved that people are ready to ditch their iPhones for Google’s Gemini-imbued Android Phones.
According to IDC’s Q3 2025 report, “Demand for Apple’s new iPhone 17 lineup was robust, with pre-orders surpassing those of the previous generation.”
Apple intelligence is seen as the less dominant in the AI race amid the marketing of iPhone 17 and 16. The marketing tactic of iPhones has always been to look for, rather than building its own model it might be looking for outside partners to invest and roll out new features all combined.
ChatGPT in iOS
It wouldn’t be totally unprecedented; Apple already lets users access ChatGPT directly in iOS and has promised from the beginning that it would add more third-party LLMs in this fashion.
Building smarter Siri on an iPhone has become an important task as compared to Google’s models and Gemini. A smart Siri will be combining some DNA’s of Gemini to build up a fancy bot.
Consider Tim Cook’s own words in a 2009 earnings call: “We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make…”
Needs to excel in AI technology
Apple needs to work on its AI technology as Apple thinks AI models aren’t a primary technology after all — more like an underlying service it will build products on top of — or it has made a serious misjudgment about AI as the next platform shift and risks falling behind.
The real challenge lies with Apple is turning ahead with AI and evolving Apple Intelligence into a product people actually want, not one that they feel indifferent toward.
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View AllIt needs to turn Siri into a thing the company has promised all along, not a glorified timer-setting machine. Apple can make a beautiful product — no doubt.
It is also suggested that iOS 27 is planning to upscale the AI version. The update is expected to fine-tune the user experience, iron out long-standing bugs, and set the stage for Apple’s next big leap, including support for the company’s first-ever foldable iPhone.