The success of WWDC 2025 hangs on Apple Intelligence. This is what it needs to

Apple WWDC

This story is part of our complete Apple WWDC coverage

It’s that time of year when Apple announces the dates for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and sends the tech world into a frenzy of speculation over what goodies it has lined up for its expectant fans. With the week-long event kicking off on June 9, there’s not long to go now.

Usually, the announcement of WWDC triggers a wave of excitement for Apple’s upcoming operating systems, such as iOS 19 and macOS 16, and perhaps some hot new hardware that Apple has been keeping under wraps.

And normally, I’d be looking ahead to what I’d like to see in macOS 16 (and trust me, I’m still thinking about that). But I haven’t been doing that nearly as much as I usually do over the past few weeks.

The reason is simple. This year, there’s only one thing that Apple absolutely needs to focus on at WWDC 2025: Apple Intelligence. The company’s artificial intelligence (AI) system needs to be front and center on June 9, and there are plenty of reasons why.

Apple’s AI struggles

It’s been a rough year since Apple Intelligence was unveiled at WWDC 2024. Right now, the AI platform has fairly basic capabilities, like rewriting text or creating simple images, and these powers have been available from rivals for years. It’s lacking more advanced features, which now seem to be facing lengthy delays. And it’s also faced a slew of bad press for its notoriously faulty notification summaries. That’s enough to make any tech company shudder.

As Apple commentator John Gruber has pointed out, much of the Apple Intelligence features showcased at WWDC 2024 were essentially an extended tech demo, although we didn’t realise it at the time. A fistful of the most exciting tools and upgrades announced simply weren’t even close to being ready, and they still aren’t ready now.

That’s left Apple Intelligence feeling like a pretty empty shell right now. Sure, it works, and there are lots of ways you can put it to use. But the most interesting and compelling features are nowhere to be seen.

In the tech world — where developments move at the speed of light — this has the potential to be a disaster. Apple’s rivals aren’t standing still, after all. Everything from ChatGPT to Google Gemini to Microsoft Copilot are rapidly advancing and putting Apple to shame. Every day that Apple Intelligence features are delayed just further widens the gap.

Apple’s most important show in years

That means that WWDC 2025 could be the most important Apple event in recent memory. There’s a weight of expectation on the company that I haven’t seen it face before, with enormous pressure on it to deliver and silence the naysayers.

There are signs that Apple is treating this year’s WWDC as an event of vital importance. Look at its product lineup and you’ll see that it has cleared the decks in recent months.

With almost every iPhone, iPad, and Mac being updated within the last twelve months, most Apple devices are now running on the latest architecture. Crucially, that means that Apple doesn’t need to unveil them at WWDC, freeing up valuable time to make the case for Apple Intelligence. Given how much catching up it needs to do, Apple will want all the time it can get.

But there’s something else we’ve got to consider here: not only does Apple have to catch up with its competitors, but it has to actually surpass them. Such is the negative press surrounding Apple Intelligence that catching up is no longer good enough.

Consider Apple’s resources for a moment here. It’s one of the most profitable companies in history and has enormous funds at its disposal. It also has the unique advantage of controlling both its hardware and software, which should give its AI a massive edge, allowing it to tap into the inner workings of its products in ways that no other AI can.

That means expectations are high. People want to be wowed and they want to know that Apple can be the best, not just “good enough.” WWDC is the time to do that, given that its main audience consists of the developers and enthusiasts who will be most keen to take advantage of Apple Intelligence.

The bad news is that it seems likely that some of the very same features that would demonstrate Apple’s edge have apparently been punted into the long grass. According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, the most advanced Siri features might not arrive until 2026 or even 2027, placing them well after this year’s WWDC. That means Apple has to somehow impress the world in other ways.

What I want to see

I’ve been thinking about the ways that Apple needs to tune up Apple Intelligence, and the problem is that most of the key improvements have already been reported to be delayed, at least according to leaks and rumors. That limits Apple’s options, barring some well-kept secret that could blow us all away.

Regardless, there are still a few new features that Apple could add that would at least make Apple Intelligence more competitive with its rivals. They shouldn’t be too advanced for Apple to unveil in a few weeks’ time, either.

For one thing, I feel that Apple needs to offer more robust image generation tools. Right now, the Image Playground is living up to its name: it’s a fun little toy, but not much more than that. It’s very basic and can’t hope to compete with more advanced tools like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion. Even just giving users more options – such as image styles or sizes – would be a good start.

I’d also like to see Apple Intelligence deployed to create more custom content. Think about Apple Music playlists, for instance: using AI to craft a custom playlist on the spot to suit whatever it is you’re doing would be one way to level up Apple’s AI. Apple Music can currently use machine learning to craft playlists made for you, but you can’t bring up Siri and tell it exactly what you want, then have Apple Music get to work.

Some of these ideas would tap into Apple’s own services in a way that rivals can’t. And really, that’s exactly the sort of thing Apple should be pushing in Apple Intelligence. The company needs to give people a reason to use its own AI rather than one of the many alternatives, and perhaps this is one way to do it.

There are other things I want to see, like an Apple-made large language model (LLM) that can compete with ChatGPT, but features like that are much further out. There’s no way they’ll be announced at this year’s WWDC.

Whatever Apple unveils at WWDC 2025, it needs to be something special if it wants to change the narrative and establish Apple Intelligence as a class-leading AI platform. With just two months to go, there’s not long until we discover Apple’s plan of action.