Apple launched its long awaited Apple Intelligence last week on iPhone, iPad and Mac. The AI features allow users to refine their writing, summarize notifications, mail, and messages, experience a more capable Siri, remove objects from images, and more, available through a free software update with the release of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1.
Apple says, “Apple Intelligence is the personal intelligence system that harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks while taking an extraordinary step forward for privacy in AI.”
Here are some key features of Apple Intelligence (which is the greatest name for AI across all the major tech companies in my opinion):
- Writing Tools – allow users to refine their language by rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text everywhere they write including Mail, Messages, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps. Users can choose from different versions of text and adjust the tone to be professional, concise, or friendly.
- Conversational Siri – Apple's voice assistant is becoming more natural, flexible, and integrated into the system experience, with a new design featuring a glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when active. Now with richer language understanding capabilities, Siri can follow along when users stumble over their words and maintain context from one request to the next, as well as answer thousands of questions about the features and settings of Apple products.
- Intelligent Photos App – now giving users the ability to search for photos and videos by describing what they are looking for, while its Clean Up tool can remove distracting elements from photos.
- Memories – a feature that gives users the ability to create movies by simply typing a description. From there, Apple uses language and image understanding to pick out the best photos and videos, craft a storyline with chapters, and arrange them into a movie with a narrative arc. Wow!
- Priority Messages – a new section at the top of the inbox in Mail that shows the most urgent e-mails, like a same-day invitation to lunch or a boarding pass. Users can also now see summaries of e-mails without needing to open a message, as well as click a Summarize button within the e-mail to view pertinent details of long threads.
- Smart Reply – provides suggestions for quick responses and will identify questions in an e-mail to ensure everything is answered.
- Notes & Phone Apps – user scan now record, transcribe, and summarize audio.
- Lock Screen Updates – users can now scan long or stacked notifications with key details right on the lock screen, while a new Focus, Reduce Interruptions feature surfaces only the notifications that might need immediate attention.
Apple notes that new Apple Intelligence features will be available in December, with additional capabilities rolling out in the coming months.
Kaveh Vahdat, founder of AI marketing firm RiseOpp, told PYMNTS, “Apple isn’t just upgrading Siri — it’s redefining the retail experience. Imagine AI-powered shopping where Siri becomes a real-time stylist, inventory checker, and payment assistant, all wrapped in Apple’s signature privacy shield.”
He described walking into an Apple Store and having your iPhone instantly alert you to personalized offers or check if the Macbook you've been eyeing is in stock. He noted, “This could transform Apple’s retail strategy from reactive to predictive, placing the iPhone as the personal shopping assistant of the future.”
Vahdat also predicted that significant changes might come to Apple Pay. He said, “Imagine an iPhone that knows you’ve entered your favorite store, highlights items on your wish list, and lets you complete a purchase with a nod to your payment history and budget—all with Apple’s tight privacy controls intact.”
Does the release of Apple Intelligence mark the beginning of our path towards Her style operating systems? I sure hope so! Honestly, I've never been a fan of Apple products, but Apple Intelligence is getting me excited.