Apple Won’t Release Some New AI Features Until 2025: Report

In this week’s edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported that Apple will stagger the rollout of its newly announced AI features well into 2025.

Apple last week announced “Apple Intelligence,” a new personal intelligence system coming to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia this fall. The announcement outlined major improvements to Siri, ChatGPT integration, new AI tools for writing and image generation, and a host of generative AI features.

According to Gurman, however, some of these new AI features won’t be ready to ship until next year. “When the software ultimately launches in the fall, it will arrive as a preview, signaling to users that it’s not quite ready for prime time,” said the renowned leaker.

“It will only work on a subset of Apple’s devices and only in American English. In some cases, users may even have to join a waitlist to use features.”

Apple usually launches a new iteration of iOS when new iPhones go on sale in September. However, Gurman noted that the company is making it clear to users — through promotional materials and briefings with journalists — that the release of Apple Intelligence won’t follow a given timeline.

The features expected to be delayed largely consist of improvements to Siri, such as the ability for the personal assistant to find things on your devices based on provided context and take action, semantic indexing to help Siri understand the context of on-device content and personal data, on-screen awareness of what you are doing on your device, and precise, context-aware control over your device and applications.

Per Gurman, iOS 18 will still launch with a greatly improved Siri. The personal assistant will have an upgraded User Interface, greater comprehension ability, and the ability to carry a more natural conversation. It’s just some of the more advanced AI features that will likely be delayed.

Spacing out the rollout of Apple Intelligence over several months will allow Apple to test and optimize the new AI features, which can be quite fickle, as they are gradually exposed to sections of the user base. The strategy will also reduce strain on Apple’s engineers and servers.

Gurman added that Apple might also postpone other features, including AI upgrades for the Mail app, Swift Assist — a new AI-based programming tool for Xcode, and non-AI features like improvements for the Home app, a new tool for dragging and dropping files between Apple devices, and spatial video editing capabilities in Final Cut Pro. What’s more, ChatGPT integration may also get held up until later this year.

Apple Intelligence is also expected to add support for other languages and regions next year. At launch, the service will only be available in American English. To use Apple Intelligence at launch, you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro series smartphone or newer, or an iPad or Mac with an M1 chip or newer.