Apple promises a smarter Siri that reads your screen and uses personal context to answer, but key monetization details remain unclear.

Apple has prepared a big step in the field of artificial intelligence, presenting Siri AI as a key upgrade to its digital assistant. According to the company, the update will bring the roughly 15-year-old assistant into the spotlight alongside giants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. The new assistant promises to help manage apps, analyze the iPhone’s screen to provide answers, and take personal context into account in its responses when it appears in beta later this year.

After falling behind somewhat in the AI race, Apple is looking to prove that it is ready to catch up. The company must demonstrate that its AI assistant can drive device upgrades, boost service revenues, and support the emergence of new products. But investors face questions: will Apple, known for turning technology into hits, be able to convince people to pay for artificial intelligence?

“The updates were more evolutionary than revolutionary, and we continue to view Apple as lagging in AI with a lack of killer apps and a dubious monetization strategy.”

– Barclays analysts

The company has not yet provided official details on monetization plans for Siri AI and Apple Intelligence, leaving room for speculation among the public and analysts.

OpenAI and Anthropic – both on the cusp of going public – have faced questions about the real profitability and justification of their high valuations and investments.

Preliminary data indicate that Apple’s main revenue comes from iPhone sales, which are currently showing growth. The company posted a quarterly revenue record for the quarter ended in March, largely due to demand for the iPhone 17.

“There are clearer paths to monetizing AI” in the note after the event, although it also notes that Apple’s AI achievements will be a “marathon, not a sprint”.

– Morgan Stanley analysts

Siri AI and other Apple AI tools are currently available on devices older than the iPhone 15 Pro, released in 2023. However, more than 1.3 billion iPhones still do not have sufficient computing power or memory to fully run Siri AI, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anurag Rana.

Some capabilities of Apple Intelligence, such as higher image-generation limits or describing frames from cameras in the smart home, may require an iCloud+ subscription.

The company aims to transform Siri from a responsive assistant into a critically important tool in iPhone software. Google and Samsung are also working on integrating their solutions into respective platforms, creating a competitive environment in this direction.

Siri AI use cases are being developed mainly for everyday tasks, while solutions like ChatGPT and Claude from Anthropic are geared toward business users.

“I’m looking for something, replying to a text message, trying to find the address of a restaurant my friend mentioned last week – this kind of thing.”

– Carolina Milanesi

Apple executives demonstrated how Siri can base requests on the content of text messages and allow queries such as: “Where is Jeff’s new place?” or pull an address from a recent message. Siri can also recognize what is displayed on the iPhone screen, as demonstrated during a presentation by Siri’s vice president of development, Mike Rockwell.

Although the current offerings do not push users to upgrade devices immediately or choose more expensive iCloud plans, they have the potential to strengthen loyalty among existing users and expand services revenue in the long term.

“You will have a hard time switching from iOS to Android when the Siri AI model understands you, your personal context, and your entire history.”

– Nabila Popal

In short, Apple is again aiming to transform Siri from a demo tool into a core component of the iPhone ecosystem, counting on attracting new users, retaining existing ones, and growing services revenue in the future.