Everybody is watching to see what comes from Apple at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) today. There’s a great deal at stake, as when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) today’s event represents an existentially important moment for the company.
Apple execs absolutely must convince developers, industry watchers, users — all of us — that it has learned from its well-publicized mistakes of the past two years and put together a serious proposition for AI across its platforms.
What we think we know
Right now, we think Apple intends to offer a hybrid of its own self-developed AI tools and services combined with others made with Google Gemini — all supported by an open approach to using AI services from third-party providers such as Anthropic or OpenAI.
When it comes to implementation, this should mean a contextually sensitive Siri that can respond to what you have on the screen of your device, or in the viewfinder of your camera app. The idea here is that you’ll be able to do contextual tasks like book restaurants or send a message to your granny, translate a sign, or even navigate around a room. More than this, you should also be able to combine tasks giving Siri complex — agentic AI — tasks it can then transact on your behalf.
Many of these functions will take place on device. Some will rely on Apple’s own fleet of Private Cloud Compute servers, supported by additional capacity from Google and Nvidia. When Apple Intelligence/Google Gemini can’t accomplish a task, you’ll be able to request that another service handle it on your behalf outside Apple’s managed garden. Siri itself will also gain a brand new interface.
What developers expect and how we got here
As discussed here, developers expect Apple will make access to many of its new Apple Intelligence APIs available to them. This will let them deploy useful functionality in their apps at no charge, in part because the intelligence takes place on the device.
It will also be possible for developers to permit their apps to run without being opened, which means a user should be able to ask Siri to do complex tasks that also include functionality from their apps. During this past weekend, we were warned that some or all of the new Siri functionality might be introduced on a staggered basis using a waiting list.
Apple has come a long way since that tense meeting in early 2025 when the company’s senior leadership established a new approach to AI. With Apple CEO Tim Cook taking an uncharacteristic interest in driving his teams to pull their act together, Apple developed a new, partnership-based approach to try to recapture lost ground.
Has Apple achieved it? That’s the test
Has Apple finally regained the initiative?
To a great extent, that will be the big focus across the industry once the company tells us what it’s done. Cook’s final WWDC as CEO sees a company at the absolute top of its game in so many ways, including soaring Mac sales. But to some extent he will be judged on how successfully Apple’s AI pivot comes across.
Weekend analyst notes summed it up, with bears and bulls tossing insights along. In one camp, you’ll find the true believers who argue that if Apple does come to us with something convincing, it has a chance to absolutely dominate consumer AI. “Siri/Apple Intelligence 2.0 has the potential to become the ultimate AI resource offload and deliver a form of Agentic AI to the consumer at a lower cost than incumbents,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Eric Woodring.
Cynics, however, warn that Apple really must demonstrate the kind of contextual, agentic AI it first announced (and failed to ship) two years ago; they want a chatbot with muscle, and will see right through any attempt to place a PR veneer over something weaker than what others already provide. If Apple fails to deliver on this, it can expect its stock to be utterly savaged over the next few days, though some analysts believe that Apple’s previous missteps mean the damage is already priced in.
A chance to shine, but can it?
Ultimately, of course, in addition to convincing industry watchers, Apple will need to find a way to deliver the kind of AI power consumers have been told to expect — while also protecting privacy. If it does get that right, particularly if it truly exploits its powerful hardware to ensure the most common tasks take place directly on the device, it has a major opportunity to deliver a form of Agentic AI at a lower cost than incumbents can. And it can do so while leaving the core AI bubble to burst as and when it will.
Will Apple succeed? We’ll know in a few hours, when you should check back for first takeaways on what Apple has to share. Join me on the Core for the headline summaries.
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