Is Apple on a path to dominate AI… how we use it and the acronym? 📱 Apple (AAPL) might be this year’s most anticipated stock comeback story. Last week, after announcing AI plans at their annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC24), Apple temporarily ‘reclaimed the title of the world’s biggest company from Microsoft’, but have since dropped behind. 

Apple stock ‘surged 7%’ in the tech company’s largest single-day jump since November 2022.

Apple’s market cap has risen to US$3.286 trillion, while fellow legacy tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) is ahead of them with a market cap of US$3.317 trillion. As a comparison, Nvidia’s (NVDA) market cap is US$3.335 trillion — making them the world’s biggest company — bumping Apple from the top spot in the rebalancing of major tech fund Technology Sector SPDR (XLK). 🌏

Yet despite Apple’s lag in AI releases and their stock falling against other Big Tech stocks Microsoft, Google (GOOGL, GOOG), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta (META), zooming out five years, Apple’s stock is up nearly 351%, which is ahead of their Big Tech competitors - with the exception of Nvidia stock which is up 3,473.54% over five years.

With more than 2 billion Apple devices used worldwide, could Apple AI be a gamechanger? 💻 Appropriating the acronym ‘AI’, Apple Intelligence generative AI is not simply another chatbot. Among the newly announced capability, Apple Intelligence features include:

• AI-enhanced Siri — an intuitive personal assistant that listens using natural language capabilities, or can now be typed in, and integrates information from an iPhone with real-time data to provide personal context for users
• ChatGPT4o integration — free opt in GPT4o support in Mail, Pages and Siri without signing up to Open-AI’s ChatGPT — something Elon Musk called a ‘security violation’
• AI-assisted Writing Tools — built-in features that can change an email tone, length, as well as proofread
• Image Playground — image generation app that’s also built into Messages, Keynote and Freeform that includes access to people in a user’s photo library and integrating tools like Image Wand
• Genmoji — user-generated custom emojis for use in Messages, and that can also access the photo library

Real-time phone recording — recorded calls can be transcribed in Notes and other apps

How AI-enhanced Siri works

Apple's AI personal assistant in your pocket. 👖 With AI-enhanced Siri, Apple says the new gen iPhones will be able to extract ‘more contextually relevant’ details because their AI ecosystem can access granular level data. From iPhones, iPads, MacBooks to Apple Watches, users are sharing mammoth amounts of personal information — into calendars, emails, messages, health information and maps. And since 2021, Apple’s used AI machine learning to tag people, locations and events in photos. 

Today’s iPhones can see through a user’s camera, can hear and reply to commands, integrates with vehicles through Carplay, and can turn a user’s voice into messages and send them. From now, the 2023 iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will be able to combine all those functions with AI, as well as iPads and Macs that have the M1 or M2 chips.

Starting with a simple ‘Hey Siri’ iPhone command. 🗣️ AI-enhanced Siri will be able to answer questions specific to each user. According to Apple, in asking ‘When is Mom’s flight landing?’ Siri can check a user’s messages from their mum against real time flight data and provide a tailored, near-accurate answer — all done without needing to open any apps or browsers.

The news has stirred up accusations that - in combination with OpenAI, biometric data like face recognition, and iCloud uses - their users’ online privacy and data security is under threat. In response, Apple has provided assurances that it doesn’t collect personal information, saying:

‘The cornerstone of the personal intelligence system is on-device processing. We’ve integrated it deep into your iPhone, iPad and Mac and throughout your apps, so it’s aware of your personal data without collecting your personal data.’ — Apple Intelligence | Privacy, YouTube

Apple’s AI advantages: custom silicon and product integration

Apple has built their own custom silicon chips. ⚙️ It’s the tech that sits inside Apple’s latest generation of devices that delivers superior power. Apple’s been developing their own chip technology for more than a decade, and this May, they launched their latest M4 chip. 

The M4 packs in more power, speed, efficiency and security than any other comparable system, with greater memory bandwidth and machine learning capabilities. And because the M4 is built into Apple’s devices, data no longer needs to be processed or analysed in the cloud — it all happens within the device itself. 

Apple’s devices and chips in combination with software is their superpower. 🦸 Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Amazon Lex, Open AI and Meta AI don’t currently integrate in a way that can deliver this level of AI personalised efficiency. While other Big Tech companies focus on either hardware or software as features, Apple’s umbrella tech vertically integrates both the device and software processing seamlessly through AI devices, making them capable of doing more tasks, more quickly and accurately. 

Now what? 🌊 According to CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa, Apple may be hoping for a tsunami of next gen iPhone buyers later this year, saying ‘most iPhone owners, they carry an earlier model, and they’re waiting longer to upgrade. Apple and its investors are banking on those owners to upgrade when Apple unveils a new model in the fall’.

For now, Apple, investors and consumers may simply watch and wait. ⌚

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