There was palpable excitement around Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) last year. The company was about to unveil its AI capabilities, with the tech world expecting the company to unveil an AI platform capable of competing with Google and OpenAI. The demos Apple showed off at the time were compelling, but the follow-through has been underwhelming, leaving both developers and consumers wanting more.
Apple’s broader struggles with AI have become clearer over the past year. Its ambitions around personalized intelligence have faced delays, and its rollout of new tools has been inconsistent. The vision that Apple sold in 2024 — a seamless blend of on-device AI, revamped Siri interactions, and powerful new developer capabilities — has yet to materialize in full.
Apple Intelligence features saw a staggered rollout that came with several hiccups. The personalized version of Siri that was showcased last year has been delayed, which matters because Apple framed the new Siri as a cornerstone of its AI strategy — a context-aware assistant that could understand user behavior across apps. Without it, the company’s AI value proposition looks surprisingly thin.
This also meant that developers couldn’t take full advantage of the new AI-powered Siri, and users couldn’t rely on the assistant to perform in-app actions as promised. For developers, that’s a lost opportunity to build more interactive, intelligent app experiences. For consumers, it’s another promise unfulfilled. And for Apple, it raises concerns about how competitive its AI stack really is compared to its increasingly powerful rivals like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft.
With WWDC 2025 now just around the corner, expectations for consumer-facing Apple Intelligence features are more cautious than last year. Most developers and analysts are now hoping for incremental improvements: smoother integration of AI into native apps, and tools that empower developers to actually use the AI that Apple is building. (No is expecting much on the Siri front.)
One of Apple’s best opportunities lies in enabling AI-assisted app development. The rise of tools like Cursor, Replit, and Bolt.new has made code generation a whole lot easier, helping developers, and even non-developers, bring products to life faster.
AI-powered apps have found the web an effective distribution platform. ChatGPT, for instance, gained massive traction on the web before launching native apps for iOS and Android. At the same time, tools like WordPress, Hostinger, Canva, and Figma now let non-technical users create simple apps using natural language prompts. Apple needs to modernize here, too.
Ideally, new AI tooling should allow more developers to create apps and post them on the App Store. That would enrich the iOS app ecosystem and open up new revenue opportunities for Apple, which is even more critical now that some of its App Store income is under threat.
Apple has made some announcements, but many have yet to materialize. Swift Assist, a coding assistant for Xcode, was shown off last year but hasn’t seen wide release. Apple is also reportedly working on an Anthropic-powered AI coding tool and plans to open access to its own AI models for developers. The goal is to lower the barrier for building iOS apps, both for pros and newcomers.
However, there are two things to consider: the web’s dominance as an application distribution platform and new regulations that bar Apple from charging fees in the U.S. for payments outside the app.
The second part is a particularly big deal. In April, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers asked Apple to remove restrictions around linking to outside payment methods for digital purchases in apps for the U.S. App Store. More importantly, the ruling also barred Apple from charging any fees for these kinds of payments. On Wednesday, a U.S. court rejected Apple’s appeal to put a stay on the ruling.
This means developers will encourage customers to purchase subscriptions and add-ons outside the App Store, also possibly at a discounted rate compared with their App Store prices.
This ruling could also spur other regulators to put similar pressure on Apple and cull App Store fees for third-party payments. Earlier this week, Apple reported that it generated $1.3 trillion in billings and sales in 2024, with 90% of that value generation happening without paying Apple a commission. But even some percentage of the remaining $130 billion means many billions in revenue for the company.
Amid all this, Apple needs to reassert the value of its ecosystem. It’s not clear if Apple will cut its commissions, but it will be interesting to see what kind of App Store features the company launches to make native iOS apps a more lucrative avenue for developers.
As WWDC 2025 approaches, Apple is in the unusual position of having to share a better story. Its AI ambitions are being challenged not only by faster-moving competitors but also by changing legal and economic realities. To succeed, Apple has to demonstrate that it can deliver on AI, for end users and the developers who power its ecosystem. Especially in a world where AI accelerates everything, Apple can’t afford to lag behind.
