WWDC 2025 May Disappoint on AI [Gurman]

Apple's upcoming developer conference (WWDC 2025) may disappoint on the AI front, according to a new report from Mark Gurman.

In his latest newsletter, Gurman says some Apple employees believe the event could fall short in terms of AI, and there's concern that the planned announcements might highlight the company's current weaknesses. He also notes the event may be smaller than the past two WWDCs, with Apple now looking toward WWDC 2026 for a more substantial AI showing — a risky timeline given how quickly the field is evolving.

The most notable AI update expected is Apple opening its Foundation Models to third-party developers. These models, which power on-device tasks like text summarization, reportedly use around 3 billion parameters — far fewer than cloud-based systems from competitors or even Apple's own internal tools. Developers will be able to integrate these models into their apps to power custom features.


Staying on AI, Gurman says Apple will also debut a new AI-powered battery saver mode, refresh its Translate app — now integrated with AirPods and Siri — and rebrand certain Safari and Photos features as "AI-powered." The company is also transitioning its operating systems to a year-based naming system. A redesigned user interface codenamed Solarium, inspired by visionOS, is expected to be the standout announcement — though some worry it could reinforce the idea that Apple is behind the curve.

Looking ahead, Apple is working on a number of AI features not expected to be ready in time for this year's event. These include "LLM Siri," a reworked assistant designed to support more natural conversations, and a revamped Shortcuts app that will let users create automations using Apple Intelligence. Both features may be delayed until 2026. Apple's AI health tool, codenamed Mulberry, and a redesigned Health app are also in development, with a spring 2026 release targeted. In addition, an internal ChatGPT competitor — possibly named "Knowledge" — is reportedly being led by Robby Walker, but has faced delays similar to those that slowed Siri's overhaul. Walker recently had his Siri engineering responsibilities shifted to Vision Pro lead Mike Rockwell.

Gurman suggests Apple is unlikely to preview far-off technology at this WWDC, having drawn criticism last year for announcing features before they were ready. This time, the company is expected to focus only on tools that will ship in the fall. Internally, Apple continues to test models ranging from 3 billion to 150 billion parameters. The largest of these, a cloud-based 150B model, is said to be close in quality to recent versions of ChatGPT, but concerns over hallucinations and internal disagreements have kept Apple from launching a public chatbot. Employees can use a tool called Playground to compare Apple's models against other platforms.

For developers, AI will be more tightly integrated into Apple's tooling. Gurman reports enhancements to UI testing, and that SwiftUI will finally receive a built-in rich text editor. An update on Swift Assist, the AI code assistant announced last year, is also expected. Apple has been testing a similar tool powered by Anthropic internally for Xcode.


No major new hardware is expected at this year's event. The next iPhone and Apple Watch updates are due this fall. Gurman expects the WWDC keynote to focus heavily on Apple's ecosystem, privacy, and design — with the Solarium interface taking center stage.

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