On Monday, Apple unveiled its long-awaited AI strategy, integrating the newly introduced "Apple Intelligence" technology into a range of applications including Siri, and bringing OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT to its devices.
During Apple's annual developer conference, CEO Tim Cook and other executives demonstrated in a near two-hour presentation how the voice assistant Siri can interact with messages, emails, calendars, and third-party apps. Siri will be able to write emails and adjust its tone based on the context.
For a long time, Apple has focused on user safety, and it plans to differentiate itself from competitors Microsoft and Google by placing privacy at the core.
However, Wall Street reacted lukewarmly to the event, as the market was hoping to see more eye-catching AI features and assurances that Apple would have an edge in the AI competition against leading firms like Microsoft. Apple's stock closed down nearly 2%.
This year, Apple's stock performance has lagged behind other major tech companies, but it rose 13% in the month leading up to the event.
Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee said: “There is nothing here that propels the brand beyond an incremental trajectory of expectations.”
“Apple Intelligence does indeed provide minor but meaningful improvements that satisfy users, putting Apple on par with its peers, but it does not surpass them.”
Apple's approach contrasts with its competitors' enterprise-first strategy. The company hopes these initiatives will convince the majority of its over one billion users—most of whom are not tech enthusiasts—of the necessity of this emerging technology.
