Despite all the criticism, mockery and predictions of doom, the fact that Apple is lagging the pack in artificial intelligence isn’t a catastrophe. The AI boom has barely started, and average consumers remain doubtful about the technology.
More importantly, an Apple executive points out that the company doesn’t need to develop its own cutting-edge AI to benefit from the research done by other companies.
Apple isn’t leading in AI — and most users won’t notice
Artificial intelligence is the hot technology of the 2020s, and Apple is far from the forefront in its development. OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot makes Apple’s Siri seem like a high school science project. Google Gemini creates pictures that make anything coming out of Apple’s Image Playground look laughable. The AI-enhanced version of Siri won’t reach customers until a year after Apple initially expected.
None of that matters, though. Not really.
Let’s take a look at Google’s Android operating system to see why. Android got out ahead of iPhone with integrated AI features, but it didn’t make users happier. The most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index survey indicates that Samsung users are 1% less pleased with their Android-powered smartphones than they were a year ago. Satisfaction with Google and Motorola Androids both decreased 3%.
But the survey also found that iPhone users are 1% less satisfied. What this means is that cool new AI features, or the lack thereof, have no effect on what typical users think of their phones.
“Brands keep racing to add new capabilities, yet customers still judge smartphones by the fundamentals,” says Forrest Morgeson, director of research emeritus at American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Cnet did its own survey and found that “just 11% of US smartphone owners choose to upgrade their devices because of AI features, a 7% drop from a similar survey last year. Further, about 3 in 10 people don’t find mobile AI helpful and don’t want to see more features added.”
Given how little interest there is in putting an AI in a smartphone, plus the groundswell of opposition to the very idea, it’s difficult to see a crisis in Apple falling behind the leaders in artificial intelligence research.
Apple doesn’t have to do everything
Several of the new AI features coming in iOS 26 are powered by Open AI’s ChatGPT. That drew some criticism, but hardly makes a difference to users. It’s similar to Apple’s Mail app giving users access to Gmail — it’s up to users to access that feature if they want.
Consider AI like the internet. Your iPhone, iPad and Mac give you access to the web and other online services — Apple doesn’t have to do everything the internet does. That’s a comparison Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, made in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week.
“AI is one of those massive technological waves, like the internet, like mobility,” said Federighi. “When you look at the internet, I don’t think anyone was saying, ‘Gosh, Apple, I find myself using Amazon.com…. Why don’t you have one of those? I find this web search thing really useful…. Why is this not in your product?’ Well, of course, the internet was vast. It was opportunity for many, many companies, and for users to do a wide diversity of things. It was also a huge enabler for Apple, and I think Apple made the internet accessible in a lot of ways, more than anyone, and it was super-empowering for our customers and for our products. But that didn’t mean that every experience that you might take on necessarily is going to happen inside of Apple.”
Even with Apple Intelligence getting off to a slow start, Apple users are hardly locked out of the AI revolution. iPhone and Mac users can access AI-powered chatbots over the web or in applications. Use OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, xAI’s Grok or whatever you prefer.
Despite the doubters, there’s little doubt artificial intelligence will change how we use our computers. But that doesn’t mean Apple must lead the charge in AI development for iPhone and Mac users to benefit enormously.
Behind in AI, ahead in privacy: Apple’s real advantage
While Apple doesn’t need to lead in artificial intelligence research, many power users expect AI features to come built into Mail, Safari and more. And Cupertino is making progress delivering them. True, its signature AI product — a smarter version of Siri — likely won’t arrive until spring 2026. But good things are going on behind the scenes. Some Apple executives reportedly think the AI-powered chatbot the company developed in-house is comparable to recent ChatGPT versions.
And when Apple’s AI features do launch, we can be sure they won’t be used to harvest our personal information for advertising. Apple makes user privacy a central focus of its products, and that holds true for AI. Whenever possible, it’s done on the user’s device, not on a remote server. And when intensive tasks require a server, Apple Intelligence handles the process privately and securely.
Plus, when users choose any of the ChatGPT options built into their Apple devices, Apple handles this as privately as possible. OpenAI isn’t even allowed to store the queries submitted.
There’s plenty of time to catch up
It’s still early days for artificial intelligence, so don’t think the companies that are ahead now will inevitably dominate. If the AI revolution is like the internet revolution, then we’re at about 1995, and the top companies for the internet revolution in 1995 were America Online and Netscape — both of which you’ve probably forgotten about.
So don’t assume OpenAI will be the next Microsoft or Google. The upstart AI company is not remotely profitable — by one estimate it must spend about $2.25 for each $1 in revenue it takes in, and could lose at $14 billion or more in 2025. It could easily become the next Netscape.
In contrast, over its almost 50 years, Apple navigated the PC revolution, the internet revolution and the mobility revolution. More than navigated, actually — it thrived. A slow adoption of AI isn’t a real problem for the company … just another task for it to handle.
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.
