Apple plans to devote a considerable portion of WWDC25 to talking about its AI strategy, according to a reliable source. That’s something of a surprise, as the iPhone maker has no big AI-related announcements to make at the developer conference.
Siri and Apple Intelligence will even get a rebrand, according to this source.
AI could take a leading role at WWDC 2025
The launch of Siri in 2011 put Apple near the forefront of artificial intelligence, but the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022 showed that Apple had fallen behind. Now Apple’s struggling to catch up. And it’s not going well — the AI-enhanced version of Siri unveiled at WWDC24 got pushed back by as much as a year.
But that doesn’t mean Apple won’t talk about artificial intelligence at WWDC 2025, which kicks off Monday. “Apple’s AI strategy takes center stage, with updates like UI changes and OS improvements playing a secondary role,” predicted Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with TF International Securities, in a post on X early Monday.
He said Apple executives will spend that time “clearly explaining how AI features will work on devices and outlining a development timeline.”
As laid out at WWDC in 2024, Apple’s strategy to differentiate its AI is to emphasize privacy. Unlike most rival services, most Apple Intelligence tasks happen on users’ devices. When complex tasks must be sent to a server for additional processing power, it’s done in a way that protects the user’s privacy.
Expect that to be emphasized during the WWDC 2025 keynote, according to Kuo. What no one should hold their breath for is specific announcements. “No major breakthroughs in Apple’s AI technology are expected,” said the analyst.
That said, Apple is reportedly making significant progress on AI behind the scenes. It’s not just ready to launch anything yet. And company executives feel cautious after promising the revamped version of Siri at WWDC24 then being forced to significantly delay it.
A new name for Siri?
A surprise tidbit in Kuo’s prediction says that part of Apple’s AI implementation includes “Rebranding Apple Intelligence/Siri.”
Or perhaps it’s not surprising. As Apple didn’t improve Siri much for about a decade after it launched, the voice assistant now has a terrible reputation with many users. It’s very limited compared to ChatGPT, Google Gemini and other chatbots. Giving a new name to Apple’s most obvious AI tool makes a certain amount of sense.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
