Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event was a typical affair showcasing new iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods. However, the real highlight wasn’t the devices themselves, but Apple’s AI evolution, aptly named “Apple Intelligence.” While still a work in progress, this new AI direction is critical in reigniting consumer interest amidst “upgrade fatigue” and combating the growing trend of reverting to simpler devices, known as dumbphones. Though many AI features are expected to be fully rolled out by 2025, Apple’s Glowtime event gave us a glimpse into what’s to come, leaving Apple fans eager for more.

Apple has subtly rebranded AI as “Apple Intelligence,” positioning itself as a leader in integrating artificial intelligence into everyday life. Instead of referring to the technology as “AI for iPhone,” Apple chose to emphasize its own brand of intelligence. This move is part of a broader effort to differentiate Apple from other tech companies, like Google, which has long been a major player in AI development.

Here are the Top 8 AI features revealed at WWDC and the Glowtime event that make iPhone 16 a cutting-edge device:

Top 8 iPhone 16 AI Features You Wouldn’t Want to Miss

1. Siri 2.0 With GPT-4o Integration: Proactive Intelligence

It’s official, iOS 18 will supercharge Siri using Apple Intelligence. However, only newer devices will be compatible, so Apple’s keynotes feel designed to deliver enough FOMO to tempt users into upgrading their iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.

Apple’s voice assistant was first introduced as an iPhone app in 2010 before being integrated into iOS in 2011. But it has been in desperate need of an overhaul for several years.

The new AI-enhanced Siri is a vast improvement and a step closer to having an on-demand virtual assistant.

New Design & Conversational Intelligence

The so-called AI-supercharged Siri experience begins with a superficial new design that glows around your device’s display. However, one of the most useful features is maintaining context between requests. So if you stumble over your words or change what you are saying mid-sentence, Siri will be able to understand you. Apple calls this conversational approach with Siri “proactive intelligence.”

Enhanced Information Retrieval

Siri can also find specific information across multiple apps. If you ask for information, Siri will find what you are looking for regardless of whether you sent it in Mail, Messages, Notes, or the Calendar Apps.

Pros

• Understands previous requests
• Maintains context
• Can find information across multiple apps
• Conversing with Siri feels more natural

Cons

• Many features will only be available in English until next year

2. AI Summaries for Notifications

One of the biggest first-world problems is the constant bombardment of smartphone notifications. The current way of managing notifications for long emails or messages is useless, especially if you’re stuck in a meeting and cannot unlock your phone or open another app.

AI Notifications Features

Apple’s generative AI notifications can solve that problem with short summaries, allowing you to get up to speed with a glance. For example, have you ever picked up your phone to see 72 messages in a group chat? With AI notifications, your top alert will be a conversation summary, allowing you to get up to speed on why the chat has suddenly blown up.

It also works brilliantly with emails. AI is finally making notifications more informative. By cutting through all the corporate speak, you can leave a meeting and glance at a summary of your emails and immediately see that Sarah is chasing for an invoice authorizing the end of play or that Dave needs a copy of the project PowerPoint templates.

Pros:

• Summarized notifications offer concise overviews of all your messages and emails
• Allows you to prioritize your workload and take action quickly

Cons:

• The feature is not available yet

3. AI Writing Tools

Apple ensured that the iPhone Artificial Intelligence was only referred to as Apple Intelligence in its new AI writing tools.

AI-Powered Writing Features Across Apple Devices

From their iPhones and other Apple devices, users will soon be able to quickly refine their words by rewriting, proofreading, or summarizing text when using apps such as Mail, Notes, and Pages

ChatGPT-Enabled Image Generation

With Compose, users can also access ChatGPT image tools to generate images in various styles to complement their writing.

Pros:

• Saves time
• Increases productivity
• Improves the quality of the text you write

Cons:

• AI-generated responses could be perceived as fake, cold, and impersonal

4. Calls Recording & Transcription

Although not mentioned as iPhone 16 new features during the launch event, earlier this year at Apple’s WWDC event, it was revealed that Apple Intelligence will eventually allow users to record and transcribe calls.

How Call Recording & Transcription Works

By hitting the record button in the Notes or Phone app, Apple Intelligence will enable users to capture audio recordings of phone calls and generate a transcript of their conversation. The AI will also immediately offer summaries of your transcripts so you can quickly see the most critical parts of the conversation at a glance.

Privacy Considerations

The feature is also added with privacy in mind and will warn everyone on the call that you are recording the call.

Pros:

• A privacy-focused way of recording and transcribing your calls
• A summary will help recall key points

Cons:

• This could prove troublesome for customer support agents and managers who could now hold businesses accountable for promises made in support calls

5. Contextual Focus Mode

The problem with Focus mode is that it can be an all-or-nothing approach to avoiding distractions. This means you could miss the reminder to pick up your child from school.

Context-Aware Notifications in the New Focus Mode

However, the new Focus Mode understands the context of your notifications and will only show you information that it thinks might need your immediate attention.

Enhanced Control Over Focus Mode

The new focus mode puts you firmly back in charge so you can fine-tune what apps and people can contact you during your personalized focus mode.

Pros:

• It helps you focus and reduce interruptions
• Ensures you do not miss important notifications

Cons:

• No sign of the new mode making an appearance yet
• Many of the best features are hidden on a settings screen
• Might look complicated for less tech-savvy users

6. Genmoji & Image Playground

Easy to use and built right into apps like Messages, Image Playground allows users to create fun images in seconds.

With more than 3000 emojis on your iPhone, it’s difficult to imagine why anyone would need any more unless we had plans to return to communicating through hieroglyphs.

However, Apple has different ideas and enables users to use Apple intelligence to create their custom Genmoji and fun images in seconds using Image Playground.

Customizing Your Genmoji

Even if you find the urge to create an emoji of a shrimp in a cowboy hat, Genmoji has you covered. You can also create a Genmoji of friends and family members based on their photos.

However, If you plan to avoid the feature, that might be a problem, as Genmojis will appear in your messages, like emojis, whether you like them or not.

Image Playground Features & Styles

Image Playground enables you to create fun images by choosing from three styles: Animation, Illustration, or Sketch. Users can also select various themes, costumes, accessories, and places.

Then you just type a description of an image and choose someone from your personal photo library to generate the image.

Pros:

• You can use AI to create unique Genmoji’s Image
• Playground enables you to create fun images

Cons:

• Gimmicky. Uploading photos and creating a Genmoji that looks like them is a solution to a problem nobody knew they had

7. Camera Control With Visual Intelligence

One of the more interesting AI features is Visual Intelligence , which will come later this year as part of a new camera control button.

Enhanced iPhone Capabilities With Visual Intelligence

Currently, it’s nothing more than a glorified shutter button. Still, later this year, Apple Intelligence will enable users to tap on the button while looking at a restaurant and it will direct you to the website to display opening hours and the menu. If you see an event on a poster, the AI will also auto-add it to your calendar.

Pros:

• The ability to seamlessly find answers without needing a browser
• Feels like a game-changer moment

Cons

• The feature is not ready yet
• There are questions on how accurate and useful it will be
• No more than a glorified shutter button right now

8. Photos Clean Up & Organization

Remember when the only way to remove objects or photobombers from your images was to ask a friend or someone online to use their Photoshop skills?

Removing Unwanted People or Objects With Clean Up

A new AI feature called Clean Up allows users to automatically remove objects from their photos with a simple tap.

Overhauling the Photos App for Better Organization

The entire Photos app has had a much-needed overhaul to help you find images you want to share with a friend hidden in a camera roll of 5,000 photos. Thankfully, it’s now much easier to search and organize images.

Improved Privacy & Screenshot Management

One of the tiny tweaks that can make a difference is that Screenshots have been removed from the main gallery. Face ID also locks the app for privacy to prevent you from feeling nervous when you pass your phone to a friend.

AI-Driven Collections & Favorites

Collections now use AI to auto-sort by topics like trips and people. You can pin favorites for quick access. The app also suggests wallpapers using on-device AI.

Creating Personalized Memories

Finally, the new Memories feature leverages Apple Intelligence to quickly create a personalized Memory Movie based on your specific input. Users can trigger this feature manually, or the iPhone can automatically generate one by recognizing patterns and themes in your photos.

Pros:

• Managing and sharing thousands of images and videos on your iPhone becomes easier
• With Memories, you can create movies from photos with your own narrative arc

Cons:

• Removing all imperfections might feel too idealistic and lack authenticity

iOS 18 Could Be the Beginning of Apple AI Subscriptions

Would You Pay for Apple Intelligence Features?

Apple’s new AI features, launched in phases through the rest of 2024 and 2025, signal the early stages of Apple’s vision of building an AI ecosystem. For Apple, it’s all about delivering enough FOMO to upgrade to an AI-ready smartphone, but I urge users to look beyond 2025.

The inconvenient truth is AI is expensive. So, instead of being distracted by keynotes, we should ask whether Apple plans to eventually pass these costs down to the consumer. Apple’s recurring subscription revenue is soaring, and the company could quite easily charge users $20 to access premium AI features via yet another subscription.

The cost of $1,200 for a new smartphone combined with additional subscriptions for AppleCare, iCloud Storage, and premium AI features is enough to see why Gen Z is fighting the good fight in a retro revolution against digital overload.

Apple’s Strategic Shift Toward AI-Powered User Experiences

Not all iPhone 16 AI features we saw at WWDC were mentioned during the launch of the iPhone 16. But Alon Yamin, co-founder and CEO of Copyleaks, the AI-based text analysis platform, believes that Apple is positioning itself at the vanguard of the AI revolution.

“This strategy isn’t just about adding the next layer of sophisticated technology to their devices; it’s a recalibration aimed at rekindling consumer excitement in an increasingly competitive landscape.”

Yamin also said that Apple Intelligence promises to redefine the iPhone experience for consumers, making interactions much more intuitive and personalized than they’ve ever been. If executed well, Apple Intelligence could transform everyday tasks in ways that competitors have been unable to.

“For Apple, the launch is more than a product update. It’s a moment to reinvigorate iPhone sales and demonstrate that it remains a leader in innovation. Undoubtedly, the stakes are high, but if the new AI features live up to the hype, it could be a game-changer, propelling Apple to new heights and potentially reshaping the market dynamics of Big Tech.”

Yamin is excited to follow Apple’s long-awaited foray into generative AI because it could set new benchmarks and influence the industry standards in the months ahead.

“The iPhone 16 series isn’t just another upgrade; it shows that Apple is ready to take the lead in the next wave of technological evolution,” Yamin said.

However, many critics wonder if this approach to AI is guiding Apple users toward a future Apple Intelligence subscription.

The Bottom Line

If you look beyond the hype, not all of the iPhone 16 AI features from Apple Intelligence first discussed at WWDC were mentioned at the launch event, and there is no escaping that the AI iOS is not ready. Instead of leading the way through innovation, AI appears to have caught Apple off guard and is now scrambling to save grace by living off future promises.

Although many liken the arrival of AI to the iPhone moment in 2007, it’s more like the launch of the App Store. Initially, we played with gimmicky apps that would turn your phone into a musical instrument, chainsaw, or a pint of beer. But, the good stuff didn’t appear until developers learned how to take advantage of the technology through Apple’s devices.

It’s important to remember that Apple’s strength has always relied on waiting patiently and then improving the experience of what others had started. With 2.2 billion Apple devices, Apple looks destined to bring AI into the mainstream. But how much it will cost you in the long run is a debate for another day.