What businesses need to know about Apple Intelligence

It’s Apple week, which means by this time tomorrow the brand new iPhone 16 and Apple Watch X lineups will have been unveiled. But it isn’t just a hardware event this year, the Apple ‘Glowtime’ event will also officially debut its AI offering — Apple Intelligence.

We first got a glimpse of Apple Intelligence at Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) earlier this year. Since then there have been trickles of information about how Apple Intelligence will work, the role it will play in the overall ecosystem, and how it will benefit users – and that includes businesses.

Here’s what we know about Apple Intelligence so far.

Why is Apple Intelligence coming out now?

Compared to other big tech companies, Apple has been comparatively ‘slow’ about publicly jumping on the LLM and generative AI train.

But that’s on-brand for Apple. It is rare to see the company be the first to market with flashier, popular tech.

It didn’t have the first mobile phone or smartwatch – and it only released its first VR headset, the Apple Vision Pro, this year.

Apple tends to wait and let other companies publicly have teething issues, before coming to market with its own slick, user-friendly version. It is the epitome of innovation in the hardware space.

And a similar thing has happened with generative AI. It is not a new concept, but it’s one most tech companies have been jumping on the bandwagon since 2022, thanks to the release of ChatGPT.

Rather than rushing, Apple has waited. This may seem like a disadvantage, but this slower approach has served Apple well in the past.

It is likely not a coincidence that the acronym for Apple Intelligence is ‘AI’. It seems to be a bold signal that Apple plans on being synonymous with AI-driven technology. It doesn’t matter that it’s a competitive space. It’s Apple.

Apple Intelligence features

Apple Intelligence is the company’s entry into generative AI, aligning itself with the broader AI trend but focusing on privacy and user context within the Apple ecosystem.

With features rolling out gradually across iPhones, iPads, and Macs – Apple is playing to its strengths with cross-device compatibility.

Apple Intelligence will be introducing three main feature categories: AI-powered writing tools, image creation, and a revamped Siri, all of which aim to streamline user experience.

Writing Tools will allow users to proofread, summarise, and rewrite text across various Apple apps like Mail, Notes and Pages. It will also include third-party apps. The smart summaries feature will help organise emails or notes.

Image Playground will allow you to generate visuals from text prompts or sketches. This means you’ll be able to turn rough sketches into polished images and even create personalised Genmojis — Apple’s word for AI-generated emoji.

Siri’s upgraded abilities are said to include more natural conversations, on-screen awareness, and cross-app functionality. Siri will now be able to understand the context of tasks you’re working on — such as adding information to a contact card based on a conversation in Messages — making workflow management more seamless.

Privacy play

The other major focus of Apple Intelligence is privacy. And that makes sense given that privacy has been a cornerstone for the brand for a while. In recent years that has included email privacy protection (such as Sign In With Apple) and app tracking transparency, which asks for permission before tracking user data across apps and websites.

Considering the heavy concern around privacy AI, Apple is well placed here.

Unlike many generative AI offerings that rely on cloud computing and external servers, Apple Intelligence will run much of the data on-device.

For tasks that require more intensive processing, Apple will utilise its Private Cloud Compute. This means that even when AI tasks are offloaded to the cloud, data remains protected through secure, encrypted channels.

There have been questions around whether Apple will be utilising ChatGPT for its gen AI offering, and the answer to that is no. That being said, Apple Intelligence will support third-party AI and ChatGPT was the first to be announced.

If used, ChatGPT will be able to be integrated with Siri and writing tools on iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and MacOS Sequoia with cross-device compatibility. However, that’s not the same thing as Apple Intelligence, they’re separate.

Will Apple Intelligence be useful for businesses?

For businesses utilising the Apple ecosystem — sure!

From the sounds of it, Apple Intelligence offers practical tools that help individuals and businesses alike to streamline workflows while maintaining data privacy.

Of course, having not tested any of these features yet, its uses and quality are all theoretical right now. It’s also always worth remembering that if you were to use these tools — especially for business use — you would want a human checking over everything.

But here are some ways they might work:

• The writing tools could help automate tasks such as summarising reports, proofing emails and rewriting documents. This could save time as well as ensure a consistent tone across communications.
• Siri and Messages’ new AI features could potentially be utilised for customer queries, smart replies, call transcriptions and follow-up prompts, ensuring responsive and efficient service.
• Siri’s improved cross-app functionality could potentially automate tasks like scheduling, managing emails, and drafting responses for faster workflow.
• The Image tools could be useful for letting businesses generate high-quality visuals from simple prompts, perfect for social media and marketing without the need for expensive design resources.

Apple Intelligence device compatibility

If all of this sounds great, there’s a limitation you should be across first.

To be able to take advantage of Apple Intelligence, you’re going to need new devices.

It will only be available on iPhones with the latest chipsets — iPhone 15 Pro models or higher. In other words, last year’s flagship or the new iPhone 16 models.

As for iPads and Macs, they will need to have Apple’s M Series of Silicon chips.

As for software, you’ll need to be running iOS 18.1 (iPhone), iPadOS 18.1 (iPad), and Sequoia 15.1 (Mac).

So if you’re on older devices, you’re going to have to upgrade. And that may be a pricey venture if you want to use Apple Intelligence across a business.

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