Apple on Monday announced an overhaul of its operating system interface, introduced an app for games and unveiled a live translation feature, but only glancingly acknowledged last year's as-yet-unfulfilled promises on artificial intelligence.
At the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) last year, executives introduced plans to use AI to make the virtual assistant Siri more interactive and able to perform complex tasks. Some features have been delayed, though, raising questions about what many analysts see as Apple's relatively slow approach to adopting AI.
On Monday, during the keynote address kicking off this year's WWDC in Cupertino, California, Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, said the company was continuing work to make the virtual assistant Siri "more personal."
"This work needed more time to reach our high quality bar," he said, adding the company would share more "in the coming year."
In a big step, Apple said it will open its "Apple Intelligence" AI model to developers so they can better integrate it into their apps. Federighi said this would "ignite a whole new wave of intelligence." He showed an example of an app helping prepare a practice test for a student based on class notes.
Much of the presentation on Monday was a demonstration of a new operating system interface that is more tightly linked across Apple devices, with enhanced functionality and a look the company describes as "Liquid Glass." The new design, which will be incorporated into everything from phones to watches to iPads, is meant to make every element on screen appear more fluid and reactive to movement.
"I'm happy with the redesign of the operating system, how they brought the operating systems together in a very cohesive way, because that lowers the barrier of entry for users to use multiple devices at the same time," said Carolina Milanesi, a technology analyst at Creative Strategies.
Apple occasionally announces hardware updates or new devices at WWDC, but there were none on Monday.
While Apple is known for its sleek designs and loyal fan base, analysts say AI-enabled devices are potentially an area of pressure on the iPhone maker, particularly after former Apple designer Jony Ive joined forces with Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI.
And on AI more broadly, some observers have criticized Apple's approach.
"It's hard to be too hyperbolic about the significance of what AI will be in the next few years. And I'm not even sure Apple's in the top five. Maybe they're in the top ten," said Financial Times reporter Patrick McGee, author of the new book Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company. "For the world's most valuable company, basically since 2011, they're doing a remarkably poor job in keeping up, let alone leading."
Apple's AI woes are just one of many challenges the company is facing.
The threat of tariffs looms large, because Apple's products are largely made in countries on which the Trump administration has imposed steep, albeit temporarily suspended, import levies. President Trump has also said he told Apple CEO Tim Cook that iPhones will face additional tariffs if they are not made in the United States.
The company has also faced regulatory hurdles at home and abroad. European antitrust regulators fined Apple for being out of compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Union's law meant to encourage competition among major tech players. And in the U.S., Apple faces legal pressure over the commissions it charges in the app store.
Some analysts say Apple needs to step up on AI, but is far from out of the game. "The AI race, as much as we like to talk about it as a race, is a marathon and it's a marathon that changes pace very quickly, pretty much on a monthly basis," said Milanesi.
Analysts note that historically, Apple has had great success with products that weren't necessarily the first of their kind, but were hailed as the best.
Apple declined to comment on critiques of its AI rollout.
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