For Apple, AI Is Personal

When Apple laid out its AI strategy on Monday during its developer conference many said the Cupertino, California tech giant was far behind in AI. But this Apple strategy has been in the works for at least 10 years. Unlike OpenAI, Google, and others, which developed a worldwide data approach with generative AI, Apple has done something unique. It has integrated AI into all of its software platforms, which makes all of its apps and services AI-capable. It calls this new functionality Apple Intelligence.

This AI approach is a big deal. Apple has implemented AI at a granular level so that its apps are richer and more functional, making its users more productive. Apple can do this since it owns the hardware, software, and semiconductors, enabling it to deliver a deep-integrated AI experience for its customers.

Another critical thing Apple did was create this with a sovereign approach to AI, meaning it only accesses your personal data anonymously and protects a user's privacy across all apps and services.

The existing AI platforms have great tools for creating and reimagining data, images, and relatable content that users can integrate into existing apps through dedicated APIs. However, this is a piecemeal approach to AI apps and services.

Apple has flipped the AI model by tapping into its most advanced neural processors and integrating AI into every level of its products and services.

This strategy is significant for those in the Apple ecosystem. Apple's approach is to see your personal information as a small language model and by only inferencing your data. This provision allows you to tell Siri to "put the new meeting time I discussed with so-and-so on my calendar," and it does so automatically.

Here are other examples of how Apple's integration in the apps and services makes a person more productive:

Siri

• Personal Assistant: Uses natural language processing to understand and respond to user queries, set reminders, send messages, play music, and more.
• Proactive Suggestions: Learns user habits and offers suggestions, like recommending apps or showing relevant information based on time and location.

Photos App

• Image Recognition: Uses AI to identify and categorize people, objects, and scenes within photos, enabling features like "Memories" and improved search.
• Photo Editing: AI-powered tools like auto-enhance, smart cropping, and adjustments to improve photo quality.

Mail App

• Smart Filters and Detection: AI helps filter spam and junk mail, detect important messages, and flag suspicious content.
• Predictive Typing: Offers text predictions and suggested replies based on the context of the email.

Apple Music

• Personalized Recommendations: AI curates playlists and suggests music based on listening habits, preferences, and trends.
• Search and Discovery: Improved search capabilities that understand natural language and offer relevant results.

Apple Maps

• Navigation: AI optimizes routes, provides real-time traffic updates, and suggests alternative routes.
• Points of Interest: Uses AI to recommend nearby locations based on user preferences and past behavior.

Apple News

• Personalized News Feed: AI curates news stories and topics based on user interests and reading history.
• Content Recommendations: Suggests articles and sources that align with user preferences.

Health App

• Activity Monitoring: Uses AI to analyze data from sensors and third-party devices to provide insights into fitness, sleep patterns, and overall health.
• Health Trends: AI identifies long-term health trends and offers personalized health recommendations.

These are just a few ways Apple Intelligence will enhance user experiences.

Apple also announced a partnership with OpenAI that allows users access to a broader range of information they might need using ChatGPT. If you want answers that require data outside your personal information, you can go directly to ChatGPT for those answers. Then, that information is factored into whatever you were searching for and applied to that app or service.

It is now clear why Apple did not spend billions on its AI clone. Why reinvent the wheel if the wheels out there are deep, rich, and capable? (Apple did hint that supporting ChatGPT was an essential partner at first but could support other AI platforms in the future.)

Instead, Apple decided to invest in making AI more practical and functional with its ecosystem to give its customers greater functionality in the apps and services they use every day.

I recently wrote about Microsoft's AI PC program. I pointed out that Microsoft's Copilot software "records every keystroke you enter every few seconds to create an on-computer repository of everything you do on the AI PC.” In effect, it creates a personal small language model of your content that you can search through.

However, in Apple's case, it is applying AI to your past and future content to deliver a deep integration of your personal small language model, thus providing a new level of AI functions to all its apps and services.

It is essential to understand that Apple has leapfrogged its competitors by integrating AI at this granular level. Those who said Apple was behind in AI need to re-examine this viewpoint in light of what Apple has just introduced with Apple Intelligence.

Disclosure: Apple and Microsoft subscribe to Creative Strategies research reports along with many other high tech companies around the world.