AI Horizon

Artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing explosive growth at the moment, with everyone in the tech world seemingly trying to get in on the action. That includes Apple, but it’s no secret that the company’s Apple Intelligence platform is struggling to compete with the likes of ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. Yet we’ve just had some news that could make that situation even worse, especially for Mac users.

That’s because Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman has just claimed that some key Apple Intelligence features won’t be available until 2026 or even 2027, putting the dream of a powerful AI-powered MacBook firmly on the backburner.

For instance, Gurman says that Apple is working on a large language model (LLM) that will power Siri and will be called, appropriately enough, “LLM Siri.” This project means merging Siri’s “two brains” — the legacy and advanced systems — into one AI tool.

Gurman says that LLM Siri could be announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June this year. Yet he also believes that it won’t actually launch until iOS 19.4 drops in spring 2026, meaning a long wait to get many of the capabilities that are already standard across the AI industry.

And it could actually end up being worse than that. Adding an LLM to Siri would allow Apple Intelligence to be conversational in the way tools like ChatGPT are and put a huge range of powers at your fingertips. But Gurman says that this aspect of LLM Siri is way behind schedule and won’t be announced at WWDC 2025 at all.

In fact, Gurman says that “people within Apple’s AI division now believe that a true modernized, conversational version of Siri won’t reach consumers until iOS 20 at best in 2027.” Considering the breakneck speed of development in the AI industry, that’s a lifetime away. As Gurman puts it, “That would mean Apple is a half-decade late to the game — an even bleaker timeline than many of us imagined.”

A problem for Mac users

This is a problem for all Apple fans who are interested in the company’s AI efforts, but it’s particularly impactful for Mac users. I’d argue that most people do their most serious work on the Mac, not on an iPhone.

That means Apple’s Mac AI efforts have to be strong for the workloads they’ll help with — the data analyzing, video encoding, and machine learning tasks that are typically performed more on Macs than iPhones. These are all areas that could benefit from an AI injection, alongside more lightweight tasks like writing emails and finding answers to your queries.

So far, though, Apple Intelligence on the Mac is far from that level. Its main elements are uncomplicated text rewriting and basic image generation, and it’s not anywhere near living up to its potential.

Sure, it’s integrated with ChatGPT, which puts a much more powerful AI at your disposal. But why would you settle for having to go through Apple Intelligence when you could just use the much more powerful ChatGPT Mac app or the recently launched Copilot app on Mac? Apple is yet to offer a truly compelling use case for Apple Intelligence on the Mac, and with these purported delays, that situation could persist well into the future.

It’s a frustrating situation, and I’d love for Apple Intelligence on the Mac to fulfil its potential. Imagine a fully personalised AI assistant that can help you with your daily work while still keeping your private data secure. It could be even better than its competitors due to Apple’s tight integration of its hardware and software, whizzing files back and forth between your devices without a hitch. That’s the promise for Apple Intelligence on the Mac, but the reality is far, far away from that.

With the large language model portion of Apple Intelligence being delayed for what could be years, it’s a very uncertain outlook for that AI MacBook ideal. Apple’s rivals have moved so fast that it’s hard to predict what they’ll be serving up by 2027 — but it feels increasingly likely that Apple Intelligence will feel like a very distant second when that day rolls around.

Better late than never?

Being late doesn’t have to be a disaster for Apple. The company has long sought to be best, not necessarily first, after all. Just look at the Apple Watch — other companies had been making similar devices for years by the time it went on sale in 2015, but it’s unquestionably the best smartwatch money can buy right now. When Apple gets it right, being late is inconsequential.

But AI is unusual because things are moving so incredibly quickly. The risk is that Apple ends up launching features that are already outdated by the time they’re announced. Its rivals could get so far ahead that they can’t be caught.

Apple needs to act fast, and that might mean internal changes and serious shakeups. The good news is that if anyone has the resources to do that, it’s Apple. Now the company just needs to throw everything it’s got at overcoming its present and future hurdles. There’s an awful lot at stake.