Apple’s AI Challenge: What Comes Next?
▼ Summary
– Despite a messy AI rollout, Apple’s iPhone sales remained strong in 2025, with the iPhone 17 seeing robust demand and the company maintaining market leadership.
– Apple’s “Apple Intelligence” features launched poorly, with a promised smarter Siri delayed, leading to internal reshuffling and a perception of failure in its AI efforts.
– To address its AI gap, Apple has now partnered with Google, planning to build a smarter Siri using Gemini’s models within Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure.
– This partnership contradicts Apple’s historical philosophy of controlling core technologies, raising questions about whether AI is seen as a foundational platform or a misjudged strategic shift.
– Apple’s core challenge is to transform Apple Intelligence and Siri into compelling, desired products, not just indifferent features, which will define its success in AI.
Despite a much-publicized stumble with its own artificial intelligence platform, Apple’s core business of selling iPhones remains remarkably strong. The recent announcement of a partnership with Google to power a smarter Siri using Gemini models has sparked debate about the company’s strategy in the competitive AI landscape. While some view this move as a concession, it represents a pragmatic shift as Apple focuses on the ultimate product experience rather than solely on model development.
Apple Intelligence faced a notoriously difficult launch in 2025. Promised features for the iPhone 16 arrived late, and the anticipated overhaul of Siri was notably absent. Internal restructuring and public acknowledgments of setbacks painted a picture of a significant strategic hurdle. Yet, consumer loyalty appears largely unaffected. Market data shows robust demand for the newer iPhone 17 lineup, with Apple maintaining its position as a global market leader. Interestingly, AI features are less prominent in the marketing for this latest model, suggesting a deliberate de-emphasis as the company regroups.
The pressure to articulate an AI strategy is immense in today’s investment climate. Reports throughout late 2025 indicated Apple was exploring partnerships instead of relying exclusively on in-house development. The new deal with Google goes beyond simply offering access to another chatbot. The plan is to rebuild Siri’s intelligence on Google’s Gemini foundation and operate it through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure. This means a future, smarter Siri would fundamentally rely on technology developed outside of Cupertino.
This partnership raises questions about Apple’s historical philosophy. Former statements from leadership emphasized the need to “own and control the primary technologies” behind their products, a principle that drove the successful development of proprietary silicon. The current path suggests one of two conclusions: either Apple now views advanced AI models as a foundational service rather than a core technology to own, or it has miscalculated the importance of this platform shift. The stakes for getting this right are undeniably high.
It is worth noting that Apple does not control every component within its ecosystem. The iPhone successfully integrates third-party search engines, wireless networks, and social platforms without those elements defining the device’s identity. AI could follow a similar path, becoming a powerful, integrated utility rather than a branded centerpiece. A shift in developer tools, from Apple’s own App Intents to the Anthropic-developed MCP standard, hints at this more open, pragmatic approach where getting tasks done efficiently may trump the origin of the underlying model.
The fundamental challenge for Apple is transforming Apple Intelligence from a speculative concept into a must-have product. Success hinges on finally delivering the capable, intuitive assistant Siri was always meant to be, moving far beyond basic voice commands. The company’s legendary design prowess is not in doubt. The open question is whether it can craft a superior AI-driven experience without full control over the core models and do so at a pace that outmaneuvers determined competitors. The partnership is signed, but the most critical work, delivering a product users genuinely desire, is just beginning.
(Source: The Verge)
