Apple Intelligence features are scheduled to arrive by the end of the month with the iOS 18.1 update. The iPhone 16 series and the iPhone 15 Pro models will get as many as six artificial intelligence (AI) features once the update is shipped. These features are powered by both the Cupertino-based tech giant’s in-house large language models as well as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. However, an analyst for a major financial firm has claimed that the smartphones might not be able to deliver “serious AI” performance for the next two to three years.
Apple Intelligence May Not Reach Peak Performance Till 2027
The comments came from Edison Lee, an analyst at Jeffries, a US-based multinational independent investment bank and financial services company. Citing the analyst, The Street reported that the Apple Intelligence features, in its current form, might not be enough to significantly boost iPhone 16 series sales.
This goes against the predictions of several industry veterans who claimed that the AI features would start a purchasing “supercycle” for the recently released smartphone series, which is usually seen when a game-changing feature or hardware upgrade is introduced in a smartphone. However, the publications claimed that the iPhone 16 series has not seen a significant uptick in demand despite the fact that no other iPhone apart from this year’s release and last year’s Pro models can support Apple Intelligence.
Lee reportedly added that the reason why Apple Intelligence in its current state is not enough is because the iPhone hardware requires a rework before it is capable of handling more advanced AI capabilities.
However, the analyst also holds the opinion that in the long run, the tech giant’s AI offering might succeed the competition as “Apple is the only hardware-software integrated player that can leverage proprietary data to offer low-cost, personalised AI services,” the publication cited Lee as saying.
By the end of October, iOS 18.1 update will add several new Apple Intelligence features to compatible iPhone devices. These are expected to include Writing Tools that can generate text based on prompts, Notification Summaries that summarises the less important notifications, Clean Up in Photos, new Notification priority feature, Memories feature in Photos, and new capabilities to Siri.