Prime Highlights:
- Apple’s latest AI features at WWDC 2025 failed to impress analysts and users.
- Siri’s major AI update has been postponed until 2026 due to internal performance issues.
Key Facts:
- Apple introduced a visual redesign and several AI-powered tools across its OS platforms.
- Critics say Apple is only catching up to Google and Microsoft, not leading in AI.
- The belated Siri overhaul fueled doubts over Apple’s AI innovation tempo.
Key Background :
During the 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple promoted its yearly upgrades on hardware and software platforms. The highlight of this year was artificial intelligence–branded as “Apple Intelligence.” The announcements, however, generated lukewarm reactions, with many experts terming them as incremental but not revolutionary.
Apple launched a new design language named “Liquid Glass” for both iOS and macOS with the aim of enhancing visual clarity and user interaction. In addition to this, the firm showcased some new AI-based features, including deeper live translation on FaceTime and calls, Visual Intelligence for identifying and summarizing content on screenshots, and enhanced capabilities in tools like Image Playground and Genmoji. Apple also made available a Foundation Model API for developers, enabling third-party applications to execute tiny, private AI models directly on devices.
Even with these additions, Apple’s AI performance was regarded as disappointing. Apple was envisioned by analysts to reveal a more aggressive, intelligent Siri—but the assistant’s complete makeover was rather pushed forward. Apple conceded that initial versions of the new Siri failed to meet internal reliability and performance standards. The company now looks to make a full Siri relaunch in 2026.
This conservative approach is in contrast with competitors such as Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, which are aggressively pursuing cloud-based, high-scale AI models. Apple remains committed to protecting user privacy, with smaller models emphasizing on-device processing. Although this method boosts user data safety, it is criticized as restricting the speed and complexity of innovation.
Apple’s share fell in financial markets following the event, indicating investor dismay. Most are convinced that the company is lagging in AI, and that WWDC announcements did not present anything groundbreaking to attract developers or consumers.
In the future, Apple will either need to speed up its own AI advancements or look at deeper collaborations with outside AI pioneers in order to remain at the forefront. The next big chance for Apple to wow us will be in 2026, when the long-pending Siri redesign and possible AI-powered hardware refreshes are due. Until then, Apple can likely not avoid the impression of no longer being at the forefront of the AI competition—but simply playing catch-up.
