Apple’s WWDC 2025 opened with a sequence of announcements reflecting an increasingly clear strategy: to integrateartificial intelligence as an invisible but structural force within the ecosystem. Craig Federighi introduced Apple Intelligence, a transversal AI suite that will be deployed on iPhone, iPad and Mac, integrating generative capabilities into Mail, Notes, Photos, Safari and Siri. The real difference from the competition, according to Apple, is in the private management of data and the ability of models to operate both on-device and in the cloud when needed.
Siri is being redesigned to be more natural and conversational. The voice assistant will be able to access on-screen content, handle more complex requests and integrate with ChatGPT seamlessly. All, however, always with active opt-in by the user, reflecting the continued focus on privacy. In fact, Apple has emphasised that each request to the artificial intelligence will only be tracked locally, and that the collaboration with OpenAI will not imply automatic sharing of personal data.
With iOS 26 come innovations that, while maintaining Apple’s philosophy, wink at personalisation and productivity. Widgets become interactive and intelligent, the lock screen can be animated and multi-layered, and App Clips receive an update that makes them more useful in everyday life. Notes and Mail are enhanced with AI-based summarising and rewriting capabilities. Safari also gets a revamp with ‘Web Eraser’, a feature that allows users to remove unwanted content from web pages and save the change locally. In this context, online experiences and traditional advertising could face a new type of interaction, albeit filtered by Apple logic.
On the device front, VisionOS 26 brings improvements to the Apple Vision Pro, including a gesture-based navigation system and new spatial photo functions. Despite the still high price, the company seems determined to strengthen the positioning of the visor, which could find stronger applications in the B2B sphere. The influence of AI is also noticeable here, with potential yet to be explored.
Apple Watch with watchOS 26 introduces advanced fitness and health features such as Training Load and new biometric metrics, while the customisation of watch faces evolves with the Smart Stack system and more extensive use of machine learning.
Also important are updates to macOS Sequoia, which includes an iPhone mirroring function on the desktop, the new Passwords app and wider interoperability with other Apple devices. AI is everywhere, but never dominant, always serving the user’s flow, consistent with Cupertino’s approach.
iPadOS, on the other hand, finally includes a native calculator (an event ironically celebrated by fans), but also introduces Math Notes, a function that allows users to write mathematical expressions by hand and see them solved in real time. The use of artificial intelligence, again, is integrated in an invisible but extremely useful way for students, professionals and creative people.
In this framework in which AI becomes standard and no longer a ‘buzzword’, Apple succeeds in scoring a key point: the power of artificial intelligence lies not only in the model, but in its ability to integrate itself into everyday life, to do so without encroaching and to make it accessible to anyone with a modern Apple device.
