Apple Intelligence: How AI Goes Mainstream
Apple's Generative AI Integration Will Accelerate Adoption
Navigating digital transformations as part of managing a business is complex, but the good news is that past transformations help us sort through the emerging ones. For example, mobile hardware, software, and bandwidth have completely changed our relationship with technology, and Apple has played a pivotal role in this. According to Exploding Topics, nearly 62 percent of all Web traffic now comes through mobile devices (as of June 2024), compared with 30 percent in 2015.
The modern mobile device revolutionized how we interface with technology, forcing organizations to rethink how they build Websites (mobile first) while thrusting them into mobile app development, which needs to work across multiple mobile platforms (Android, Apple iOS). But Apple ignited the first sparks of this now mainstream, if not dominant, mobile behavior—and they are doing it again with Apple Intelligence:
AI In The Hands of Few, Not Many
Despite the overwhelming success of Open AI’s ChatGPT (over 180 million registered users to date), Open AI’s Large Language Model (LLM) isn’t yet a part of people’s everyday experiences, such as scanning emails, texts, or messages as part of our morning routines. Despite the large number of registered users, far fewer are likely to use ChatGPT for everyday tasks, and those who do probably feel like they are living in the future. During the early smartphone days, Apple’s App Store—another considerable milestone and game changer, didn’t even exist, but once apps got into the hands of every iPhone user, it became clear that any business that had significant digital experiences in place with its customers, patients, etc. would need an app version. Apple Intelligence is positioning itself as “AI for the rest of us” and is positioned to mainstream Generative AI adoption. Here’s how this will break down:
Smart Siri Will Accelerate The Era of AI Agents
Apple Intelligence promises to usher in what, for the past year, AI enthusiasts have been describing as “AI Agents.” The shorthand describes the functionality that Apple Intelligence illustrates it will bring to life. AI Agents promise to take user requests and connect data from systems to fulfill a task. Apple demonstrates this by interacting with the new Siri and a user who asks it, “When is mom’s flight landing”? The new “smart Siri” knows who mom is (address book) and when her flight is landing (e-mail) and then delivers a very human (and informed) response.
Writing Assistants Will Mainstream AI-Assisted Text
Only some people are great writers, but with Apple AI, everyone can become a better writer. Writing assistants such as Grammarly aren’t new, but LLMs go beyond fixing grammar and spelling and even suggesting alternate ways of saying something—they DO the writing, including the tone and the way something is written. Apple Intelligence promises to include this AI-assisted writing across most of its ecosystem, which will undoubtedly influence how we write, text, message, and communicate using any variation of the written word.
Genmoji Will Merge AI With Ideation, Training Everyday People on “Prompting”
During the early days of Generative AI, it was predicted that creative professionals would need to learn how to generate output using “prompting techniques.” Now, a simplified version of prompting will be available to iPhone/Apple users who can create custom emojis (Genmojis) and more. Simple sketches will also be transformed into AI-generated images. On this front, Apple Intelligence supercharges not only the written word but also image generation and customization. No Canva required, and everybody prompts.
ChatGPT Integration Becomes Like Breathing Air
Apple Intelligence will integrate Open AI’s ChatGPT engine, which will hand off specific requests to the Open AI LLM. This is the part of Apple Intelligence where Elon Musk makes a big fuss, citing data security issues. Apple claims that no data will be compromised. For the end user, this integration will likely feel invisible, meaning that any answer or sourced information available to Open AI will now be delivered directly through your iPhone. No ChatGPT app is needed. It will probably feel like breathing, which we don’t consciously think about.
The Consumerization of AI
The TLDR of all the above is Apple accelerating the consumerization of IT once again, this time with AI. Talking to AI assistants, generating AI-assisted content, and doing all the things that Generative AI empowers us to do will become standard expectations once the millions of iPhone users get their hands on them. No doubt, Google’s Android AI Acceleration is also in play, powered by Gemini, which will only add even more rocket fuel to people's expectations when it comes to modern digital experiences.
Nice, David. I agree with the AI Writers part. Luckily ChatGPT4o will may be able to read all of that content for us. ;) Our newsletters will be reading each other.
Enjoyed reading this!
The broader challenge with AI (or LLMs or ML or any new technology) is education and usage.
→ Do we (users) know what the technology does?
→ And do we understand how we will benefit from it?
At the very least, Apple will answer these two questions, which will accelerate the education and usage of AI, whether users know they are using AI.
(See 5g as an example.)