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Apple is putting AI into its phones like a new U2 album that nobody asked for.
Whether you’re an Apple fangirl who’s already reserved the $1,200 iPhone 16 Pro Max or a regular guy who’s spent too many years trapped in group chats that consisted only of blue bubbles, at some point you’ll have artificial intelligence features built right into your phone.
It hardly matters that the real-world applications of most AI products so far are neither overwhelming nor reliable. In the absence of other major innovations, Apple is betting that even the newest AI tools will inspire people to upgrade and kick off a “supercycle” of sales next year.
However, investors and customers may want to temper their expectations given the “Apple Intelligence” highlights the company unveiled in June and officially unveiled on Monday. Even Apple seemed to hedge its bets a little: The word “artificial intelligence” was never mentioned.
The new tools look… good. Cute, even. They’re exactly what we’ve come to expect from Apple—intuitive, friendly, mostly non-creepy. With the iPhone 16, you get a smarter, more human-sounding Siri. You can generate custom emojis by typing something like “zombie with heart eyes eating pizza.” You can point your camera at a dog in the park and the phone can tell you (roughly) what breed it is.
But the AI tools currently on offer are clearly in the “nice-to-have” category – and not the “must-have” category that would convince someone to spend a thousand dollars on a new device.
“Despite the uncertainty around the timing of the new features and global rollout, I believe consumers will be excited about these AI capabilities,” tweeted Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, ahead of the phone’s official unveiling at Apple headquarters. Munster expects iPhone sales to beat Wall Street estimates in the coming quarters.
Of course, the way iPhone cycles go, even a mediocre iPhone 16 should sell decently, considering that many customers are holding on to older phones and are due an upgrade anyway. That’s still a positive—brand loyalty is one of Apple’s greatest strengths, which is partly why Apple is taking its time to integrate AI slowly and transparently (having learned its lesson from the 2014 U2 album debacle).
At an event to unveil Apple’s first AI-powered iPhone, one thing was missing during the two-hour presentation: the word “artificial intelligence.”
Instead, CEO Tim Cook and other company spokespeople simply referred to the “intelligent” features.
To be clear, “Apple Intelligence” is Apple’s proprietary AI. But Apple – the most brand-conscious company in the world – understands something that is often lost in the bot-driven bubble of Silicon Valley: Normal people don’t trust AI.
While developers in Silicon Valley and investors on Wall Street are betting big on a future with bots, the people who will buy these AI-powered devices still need a little more convincing. (And even Wall Street enthusiasts are losing patience with the technology’s lack of return on investment.)
This summer, a study published in the Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management found that describing a product as “AI-powered” tends to lower a customer’s purchase intention.
It’s not hard to see why: Our interactions with chatbots and AI image generators have quickly taught us to be skeptical of their stilted, often completely false representations. When something looks fake, we now say it looks like it was generated by a bot. When we hear a politician botch his campaign speech, we joke that it sounds like ChatGPT wrote it.
Apple, always concerned about its image, knows that it must not fall into the “AI” trap, even if the new iPhone is all about AI.
