WWDC 2025: Apple is still behind on AI, but does it matter?

USA Today

19 hours ago

WWDC 2025: Apple is still behind on AI, but does it matter?
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Going into this year's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) event, there's been a lot of speculation about what Apple would, or wouldn't, say about Apple Intelligence and updates to its Siri personal assistant.
After all, it was at the same event last year that Apple first unveiled Apple Intelligence with great fanfare, so interest has been riding high. Given how disappointing the reality of those features have been compared to the impressive demos and grandiose vision that Apple shared last year, the anticipation has been even greater.
Alas, while the company did make a number of glitzy announcements about design and naming and offered up some specific new Apple Intelligence-powered features, there wasn't much steak behind the sizzle on the AI front. In fact, Siri was only mentioned once, and it was to basically say more will be coming later this year.
Making iPad more functional
The most important announcement from the show had nothing to do with AI, but with bringing a true computer-like user interface to the iPad. The next version of iPadOS will finally bring a true multi-application, multi-windowing environment to Apple's tablet as well as a file system, nested folders and all the other things you expect on a PC. In essence, it will make the iPad Apple's first real touch-based computer, something that a lot of people will undoubtedly be excited about.
A new interface
On the design front, the company spent a great deal of time showing off their new Liquid Glass user interface design − inspired by the VisionPro OS − and made it clear it will become the consistent new look across all of Apple's devices. They also announced year-based naming conventions for all their operating systems, including iOS, MacOS, iPadOS, etc. They will all be tagged as version 26, so named since they're expected to all launch later this fall and be the standard for most of 2026.
Smarter intelligence
On the AI front, despite Apple pulling back noticeably from their AI-first messaging of last year, they did still announce several new features that will leverage AI capabilities. The new Visual Intelligence features for iOS and iPadOS, for example, will allow you to easily do visual searches of both objects around you and the content on your screen via screenshots. In essence, it's an easier way to do image-based searches, which is a handy capability that not everyone takes advantage of. In a hint of things to come, you can also use it to do things like take a screenshot of an event announcement and have it automatically added to your calendar.
For app developers
Apple also announced the ability to access the small on-device AI models that Apple has built into iOS and iPadOS via a new extension to the operating system. Over time, that should lead to some interesting new AI-powered features in apps that choose to leverage these capabilities, but it's still far from an overall AI-driven experience.
AI still waiting for its moment
In spite of the disappointment that AI enthusiasts may feel about this lack of news from WWDC, however, it's certainly worth pondering whether it's really going to matter to most people − at least right now.
Yes, there are some amazing AI-powered capabilities on Android via Google's Gemini, on Windows thanks to its partnership with OpenAI, and across all the hot new AI tools, such as Perplexity, Claude and many others. And yes, it's a bummer that the more advanced capabilities − such as digital agents and personalized digital assistants − aren't yet available on Apple devices.
In truth, however, most people still haven't really started using most of these tools on a regular basis. Oh sure, there are definitely AI diehards who are using these capabilities all the time and who sing their praises on a regular basis. Normal folks who just want to use their phones, computers, tablets and other devices to do the kind of stuff they've been doing − communicating, researching, planning, gaming, watching entertainment, etc. − are still perfectly capable of doing so even without AI.
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The thing that most people are just starting to discover about AI-based capabilities is that they often require changing habits in order to really best take advantage of them. As easy as that may sound, most of us are creatures of habit and asking us to change how we do things is actually harder than most people realize. In addition, it takes training − someone showing you how to really use these new tools − to understand their full capabilities and, as of now, there's precious little of that. Instead, companies are assuming that people can just figure all these new capabilities out and, well, we all know what happens when you assume….
Over time, as we all have more exposure to these new AI-powered capabilities, get a better sense of what they're capable of, and start to learn about how to use them, I have little doubt that we will all become very accustomed to them and will very much notice if they aren't there. In the meantime, however, we're in the early stages of the AI revolution and their presence − or not − still isn't as big a deal as many people believe.
So, back to Apple and their situation. Knowing how eager the company is to stay towards the front − but not necessarily lead − on major technology evolutions, I'm certain they wish they did have more new Apple Intelligence features they could talk about right now. In fact, given how important the services side of their business is − and how many opportunities for creating for-pay AI-powered capabilities exist − it's critical both strategically and economically for the company to start creating meaningful AI features. At the very least, it would be great if they could deliver on the impressive vision they demonstrated last year sometime soon.
But in the larger arc of time, I feel confident that − as long as they start delivering AI capabilities before mainstream users demand them − the slow rollout of Apple Intelligence features and a more advanced Siri will end up being little more than a bump in the road. In fact, there's a part of me that thinks they might even turn it around and talk about how they'll deliver AI when the capabilities are ready and, most importantly, when we're ready for it.
That's a typical kind of Apple message and, honestly, something that, in the end, might just work.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.
USA TODAY columnist Bob O'Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, a market research and consulting firm. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech.