Apple's AI Strategy Faces Skepticism: Can Slow Execution Catch Up Amid Gap Between Promises and Delivery?

Author: Tim Bajarin, Forbes

Translation: Felix, PANews

At Apple's 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the company unveiled its AI strategy under the name "Apple Intelligence."

It was a promising vision that sparked widespread anticipation. However, in the year since its announcement, Apple has faced significant criticism for overpromising and underdelivering on its AI commitments.

Apple’s AI strategy has been criticized for entering the space late, having limited cloud capabilities, and placing excessive emphasis on on-device processing. Critics argue that Apple lags behind companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft in foundational AI research and large language model (LLM) development. Instead of building a robust AI platform early on, Apple focused on privacy and hardware, leading it to rely on partners—such as integrating ChatGPT into Siri.

Skeptics also point to Apple’s insistence on running AI models primarily on devices. While this approach enhances privacy and speed, it limits the scale and complexity of AI functionality compared to cloud-based systems. Some developers and analysts believe this restricts Apple’s ability to deliver truly transformative AI experiences.

At the beginning of June this year during WWDC, Apple publicly acknowledged that many features promised at the 2024 launch of Apple Intelligence have been delayed. Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, stated: “We’re continuing to work to make Siri more personalized. This work will take more time to meet our high-quality standards, and we look forward to sharing more next year.”

OpenAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and other major players each have their own LLM engines. Apple, however, must partner with third parties and use their technologies to integrate AI into its operating systems and applications. In this case, Apple partnered with OpenAI and ChatGPT to bring AI capabilities into macOS and iOS.

When first announced, this plan was seen as ambitious. Google owns its Gemini LLM, enabling it to deeply integrate AI into the Android system from the ground up. This gives Android an advantage in embedding AI within mobile operating systems.

While that may be a superior approach, Apple has done something rather interesting—at least in the short term, they are empowering their own apps with AI.

Apple has integrated Apple Intelligence into several of its native applications. Below are some key examples:

Photos:

• Clean Up Tool: Uses generative AI to remove unwanted objects or people from photos.

• Memories: Apple Intelligence helps users create movies from photos and videos based on descriptive prompts.

• Natural Language Search: Users can search photos and videos simply by describing what they’re looking for.

Mail:

• Priority Inbox: The Mail app categorizes incoming messages by content and flags important emails as “Primary.”

• Smart Replies: AI-powered smart replies help users respond to emails quickly and efficiently.

• Email Summaries: Apple Intelligence provides summaries of email and message conversations.

Messages and FaceTime:

• Real-time Translation: Automatically translates messages in real time.

• Reduce Interruptions, Focus Mode: This AI-enhanced Focus Mode minimizes distractions.

• Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing: These Focus Mode features help filter notifications for better management.

Notes:

• Image Wand: A feature in the Apple Pencil tool palette that turns hand-drawn sketches into images and generates images from text descriptions.

Shortcuts:

• Smart Actions: Apple Intelligence enables a new set of intelligent actions in Shortcuts, allowing users to leverage AI models for tasks like text summarization or image generation within their workflows.

Siri:

• Enhanced Capabilities: Integrated with Apple Intelligence, Siri is now more powerful and intelligent. It can handle more complex queries, understand context better, and features a redesigned look and experience.

• ChatGPT Integration: Siri can access ChatGPT to respond to more complex requests or questions.

Apple also allows third-party apps to leverage on-device AI models powered by Apple Intelligence.

Apple’s rapid integration of AI into its apps is crucial, but given that AI data spans globally, the criticism that relying on on-device processing limits the scale and sophistication of AI functions—compared to cloud-based systems—is valid.

This has led some analysts and media outlets to suggest that Apple should acquire an existing LLM company to keep pace with global AI expansion. While an intriguing idea, it is unlikely to happen.

Instead, Apple is increasingly leveraging existing LLM partnerships while advancing its own strategy. In parallel, Apple is developing its own LLM to gain the control necessary to protect customer data privacy and deliver the level of privacy protection Apple products are known for.

Ed Handy offered a deep analysis of Apple’s AI strategy in Cult of Mac, arguing that Apple’s slow rollout isn’t a crisis. He stated:

“Apple isn’t leading in AI, and most users won’t even notice that AI is the hot tech of the 2020s—and that Apple is far behind in this area. OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot makes Apple’s Siri look like a high school science project. Google Gemini’s image generation makes Apple’s Image Playground seem laughable. Apple originally planned to release an enhanced version of Siri a year after announcement, but now that’s delayed. Yet, none of this actually matters. It really doesn’t.

Look at Google’s Android operating system and you’ll understand why. Android leads the iPhone in AI integration, yet this hasn’t made users any happier. The latest U.S. Customer Satisfaction Index shows Samsung users’ satisfaction with Android smartphones dropped 1% compared to last year. Satisfaction for Google and Motorola Android phones fell by 3%. But the survey also found iPhone user satisfaction declined by 1%. This means that flashy new AI features—or the lack thereof—don’t impact how average users feel about their phones.”

As someone who has followed Apple for over 40 years, I can confirm that Apple consistently moves at its own pace. And the way they’re rolling out Apple Intelligence won’t be swayed by outside criticism.

Apple has historically excelled at creating new products and services. While some criticisms hold merit, Apple’s approach to infusing AI into its apps remains a solid strategy—one with considerable room for innovation ahead.