WWDC: Disappointing in Terms of Apple AI?

Apple's developer conference WWDC 2025 starts in just one week, but according to a report by Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, the event will be “smaller-scale” than in previous years: As Apple has little new to show in terms of AI, it is expected to focus primarily on redesigning its operating systems. For comparison: Apple presented its first AR headset, Vision Pro in 2023, followed by the (subsequently disappointing) Apple Intelligence software in 2024.

Things are still crunching in the AI tree

Apple should actually be showing fresh features for the anniversary of Apple Intelligence, after Google, for example, recently took things up a notch with Gemini. Meanwhile, OpenAI is cooperating with Apple's former head of design Jony Ive and paid him billions in business shares for an as yet unknown hardware development. Apple, on the other hand, only has simple text generators, below-average image generators, summaries, and other AI trifles to offer when it comes to AI. Improvements to Siri, where Apple has long needed to improve, will only come later.

According to Gurman, however, WWDC 2025 will be “a disappointment in terms of AI”. According to insiders, the planned announcements could even make Apple's problems with Apple Intelligence and Siri “even more noticeable”. Only at WWDC 2026 does Apple want to show again that it is an “AI innovator”. The most important AI announcement is allegedly that Apple is opening up its on-device AI models to developers – who have long had a wide choice from the competition. There will then be AI functions for battery management and translation functions for AirPods. Finally, Apple could also name AI features in Safari and Photos, i.e., rebrand them as “AI-powered”, according to Gurman.

macOS 26 could be called Tahoe

Otherwise, Apple is likely to focus on the aforementioned redesign and renaming of its operating systems at WWDC 2025. For example, macOS 15 will reportedly be followed by macOS 26 and iOS 18 by iOS 26. Other systems such as watchOS, tvOS and visionOS may also be rebranded so that users can see more quickly whether they are up-to-date. In addition, the interfaces will be more closely aligned. However, many users are wondering how necessary this is. They were hoping for a reduction in development speed and bug fixing. Now Apple is likely to be forced even more to update annually, if only to ensure that the version number does not become obsolete.

Meanwhile, Gurman has another piece of news to report: In his newsletter from the weekend, he goes on to write that macOS 26 will probably be named after the mountain lake, Lake Tahoe, i.e., macOS 26 Tahoe. The naming after a well-known location suggests that the update is particularly important to Apple.

(bsc)