Apple Intelligence: Catching Up and Breaking New Ground

Welcome to our latest blog post where we dive into Apple's announcement at WWDC 2024. On Monday 10th June, Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence; its revolutionary take on generative AI, designed to seamlessly integrate into its ecosystem while prioritising user safety and personalisation. From enhancing Siri's capabilities to introducing innovative tools like Genmoji and Image Playground, Apple Intelligence promises to transform everyday tasks and elevate user experience across iOS, macOS, and VisionOS. Join us as we explore how Apple’s commitment to privacy, seamless integration and user-centric design sets new standards in AI, and discover what this means for the future of AI in healthcare and beyond.

Personal intelligence: Understanding you and keeping your data safe

Apple’s focus on creating a deeply personalised AI experience, which it calls “personal intelligence,” is a significant shift. By tailoring AI to individual routines, relationships, and communication habits, Apple aims to provide a more intimate and context-aware user experience than what’s typical in the AI space. Apple’s commitment to privacy and local processing of AI tasks sets it apart from competitors who rely heavily on cloud processing, potentially setting new standards for AI privacy. The seamless integration of AI across Apple’s ecosystem – including iOS, macOS, and VisionO – creates a unified user experience that leverages Apple’s hardware and software synergy. This deep integration offers a more cohesive and intuitive experience than fragmented implementations seen elsewhere.

The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, highlighted how crucial it is for the tool to understand users personally, considering their routines, relationships and communications. “Most importantly, it has to understand you and be grounded in your personal context, like your routine, your relationships, your communications, and more,” Cook said. This focus on personal context is what sets Apple Intelligence apart from other AI tools.

While Apple’s strategy could set a new standard for AI, it also puts pressure on other companies to adopt similar practices. Will users start demanding more from their tech providers in terms of privacy and personalisation?

As we know, personalisation is key to driving engagement and understanding the user is the first step towards this. But how do we know that the data Apple is using to do this is safe?

Keeping your data private and secure

Apple’s strong commitment to privacy is a standout feature. By processing AI tasks locally and introducing Private Cloud Compute, Apple ensures that your personal data is safe and handled with care. While some tasks still require cloud processing, this hybrid approach offers better privacy and security, setting a new standard for AI privacy.

In an era where data breaches are a significant worry, Apple’s privacy measures are a breath of fresh air. Their focus on local processing and private cloud computing is exactly what’s needed to protect sensitive information. Apple’s privacy-first approach could become a major selling point, but it also sets a high bar that others might struggle to meet. This could lead to a more fragmented market where only a few companies can offer truly secure solutions.

Integration across Apple’s world and App Intents

Apple Intelligence is designed to work smoothly with all of Apple’s operating systems, including iOS, macOS and VisionOS. It uses data users input into apps like Apple Calendar and Maps to create a unified user experience across devices, making everything feel more connected and intuitive. This integration enhances functionality through local processing on the latest Apple silicon.

App Intents make Siri more useful by integrating it deeply into various apps. Starting with Apple’s own apps and eventually moving into third-party apps, this will significantly expand Siri’s capabilities.

For instance, scheduling a meeting will no longer require switching between Calendar, Mail and Maps, making workflows much more efficient. As an agency focused on user engagement, we’re excited about the potential of these integrations to enhance user experiences in our apps. This cross-app functionality will streamline tasks, making our solutions even more efficient and user-friendly.

We understand how crucial seamless integration is for creating smooth and efficient workflows, especially in complex systems like healthcare applications, and Apple have made the most of the extensive infrastructure they have across devices and apps to create a holistic experience for users and ensure customers come back to them for their next gadget - smart move!

Siri’s big upgrade and smarter search

One of the most exciting updates is the significant upgrade to Siri; marking its biggest change in over a decade. Siri is now more integrated into Apple’s systems, with a new blue glowing border around the screen when in use. Additionally, Siri can now process typed queries, making interactions more flexible and user-friendly. This change is especially beneficial for our healthcare applications, where voice commands might not always be practical or preferred by users. The ability to type queries into Siri can improve accessibility and user satisfaction, which are critical for our projects.

Search capabilities are also getting a significant boost, especially for photos and videos. Apple promises more natural language search capabilities within these apps. Generative AI models will make creating slideshows in Photos easier with natural language prompts. These features will be available with the latest versions of iOS and iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia and visionOS 2, ensuring users have access to the most advanced tools. For our clients, these enhanced search features mean more efficient and intuitive ways to manage and create content.

Everyday AI magic

Apple Intelligence brings generative AI to daily tasks, making composing emails and creating slideshows easier. Features like Smart Replies in Mail and custom emoji creation with Genmoji show how AI can simplify everyday activities. Google has had similar features in Gmail with its generative AI model: Gemini, but Apple’s deep integration across devices provides a more seamless experience. For our clients, this means faster, smarter communication tools that improve productivity and engagement.

Apple is also launching Genmoji, a feature that creates custom emojis from text. Another new tool: Image Playground, is an on-device image generator integrated into apps like Messages, Keynote, Pages and Freeform. Designers will find this tool particularly useful, similar to the impact we’ve seen from tools like MidJourney, but with the added benefit of being built into the Apple ecosystem. Image Wand, another innovative tool, lets Apple Pencil users create images by just circling text, enhancing creativity directly on the device.

Innovations in generative AI can be game-changing for creative professionals, however at KVA we recognise the critical need for the human imagination. AI will never replace the creativity of designers, however learning how to use generative AI to support our design teams and realise concepts is a huge advantage for our team. AI will never replace designers, however designers with AI will replace designers without AI!

Strategic partnerships and industry moves

Apple also announced a partnership with OpenAI, bringing ChatGPT to Siri and other offerings. This GPT 4.0-powered feature will let users generate images and text without needing to sign up for an account or pay a fee, though premium upgrades will be available! This collaboration allows Apple to leverage existing AI expertise and offer advanced functionalities without starting from scratch, similar to strategies we have seen used by other tech companies.

This partnership could accelerate the adoption of advanced AI features, but it also highlights the importance of collaboration in the tech industry. We wonder if users will be content with an external party processing their AI prompts? It’s possible a competitor will offer the same feature set in the future using an entirely local AI when the technology permits and allows a much deeper level of privacy - we will keep a close eye on this!

The big picture

Apple is still playing catch up in some areas, like adding generative AI features and upgrading Siri, but they’re also introducing unique and potentially groundbreaking elements that we haven’t seen in other AI tools yet. With a focus on personal intelligence, strong privacy measures and integration across devices, Apple is aiming to surpass its competitors in creating a standout, user-centric AI experience and we can’t wait to see how they do!

Apple’s unveiling shows a strategic mix of catching up with industry standards and setting new trends. This approach positions Apple to not only meet the current expectations of users but also pave the way for future innovations in AI.

Our role in innovation

KVA has been at the forefront of using AI for a number of years now. One example is Wilson, our client partner’s AI bot. This innovative tool leverages the latest in AI technology to provide unparalleled service and efficiency, bespoke to each of our client needs. Trained and prompted by KVA, it incorporates clinical and analytical data, local regulations, brand guidelines… the list is endless! Wilson exists in the background to ensure accuracy, compliance and adherence to our clients preferences.

If you’re interested in integrating cutting-edge AI technologies into your projects, get in touch with us to learn more about how we can help you become a pioneer in healthcare communications.