Jun 2024
Image Sources: Apple Inc.
Updated June 2025: Following Apple’s WWDC 25 announcements, we’ve enhanced this guide with the latest Apple Intelligence capabilities for businesses.
One year after its debut, Apple has just put Apple Intelligence into its next gear. While WWDC 2025 brought stunning design changes like “Liquid Glass,“ there are also powerful new capabilities embedded within Apple’s AI ecosystem. Apple Intelligence for business has evolved, offering new opportunities for creating smarter and more private digital experiences. This guide moves beyond the basics to deliver expert analysis on the new features and what your business must do to capitalize on them now.
Following Apple’s WWDC announcements, we spoke with Brad Weber, CEO of InspiringApps, about what these AI advances mean for businesses. With Apple Intelligence now offering powerful new features, the landscape has shifted dramatically from when Brad first discussed AI strategy with Tim Hayden (see our AI & Data Privacy webinar series).
Apple’s evolved approach—prioritizing privacy, seamless integration, and accessible AI for all businesses—aligns perfectly with what we’ve been advocating: AI should enhance user experiences without compromising data security or breaking the budget.
Recommendation: Through seamless integration, focus on delivering tangible benefits to users that take advantage of Apple’s AI-driven user experiences, such as personalized recommendations and predictive features. Create a sense of surprise and delight where AI often works as an unseen implementation detail through long-standing AI features as well as newer integrations through Siri and system-level features via App Intents.
“AI has enhanced the Apple user experience for many years. Has your phone predicted your commute time to work when you are a few blocks away from home? Has your watch calculated the total yards of your swim workout and broken down the distance by stroke? Both features (and many more) are driven by AI, but Apple treats that as an implementation detail users don’t need to know about. They should just experience the surprise and delight.“
—BRAD WEBER, INSPIRINGAPPS CEO
Most people have experienced AI without realizing it. “Hey Siri, read my messages“ is a prevalent example of AI in everyday life. With Apple adding more ways to engage with app functionality through Siri and system-level features, properly defining and configuring App Intents may become a new strategy for businesses to ensure their in-app content and services are discoverable and intelligently integrated into users’ queries and workflows.
For example, the improved typing interface with Siri could make Apple devices and apps more accessible for users with certain disabilities or situational impairments that make voice input challenging. If these intelligent features prove useful for accessibility, businesses may be able to reach and serve a broader audience.
Businesses using messaging platforms for customer engagement could also tap into the new intelligent writing and summarization tools to streamline communication and quickly synthesize key points from lengthy customer inquiries or feedback, improving response times and quality.
Recommendation: Be transparent about data collection and usage, give users control over their data, and take every precaution to protect user information.
AI enables computers to tackle complex problems and operate in the “gray areas,“ where they can develop their own solutions based on the given goals or outcomes. To achieve this, AI relies on extensive data to effectively train models and make precise predictions or decisions, such as identifying objects in images or determining the optimal course of action in a given situation. This reliance on large datasets for training AI models raises important questions about data privacy and the implications of using personal information in developing AI systems.
“With the new generative AI features, Apple will continue to prefer the privacy of on-device processing. When server capabilities are required, limited data is sent to Apple, and none of it is stored beyond the current ’session.’ And if ChatGPT (and other engines/providers in the future) are beneficial, users will explicitly approve each data share. It is highly unlikely that any user-identifiable data will be sent to OpenAI as part of those interactions unless the user specifically opts in with their OpenAI account details.“
—BRAD WEBER, INSPIRINGAPPS CEO
For instances requiring server capabilities, Apple extends on-device privacy to the cloud through Private Cloud Compute, ensuring user data cannot be accessed, not even by Apple, and is not stored beyond the current session. When external AI services, like ChatGPT, are beneficial, users explicitly approve each data share, with identifiable data highly unlikely to be sent without specific user opt-in.
Many new intelligent features, such as Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone, operate entirely on-device to keep personal conversations private. In short, Apple’s commitment to privacy is a key differentiator, and businesses should follow their lead.
Recommendation: Use Apple’s Foundation Models framework to build intelligent features directly into your apps with minimal code and zero ongoing costs.
The framework provides direct access to Apple’s ~3 billion parameter on-device model, enabling:
According to Apple’s documentation, the framework is designed for tasks like summarization, entity extraction, text understanding, and structured data generation. The model excels at specific, focused tasks rather than general knowledge queries. For example, Visual Intelligence can extract event details from images to create calendar entries, while the Foundation Models framework enables apps to generate structured data from natural language inputs.
For instance, a real estate app could use Guided Generation to extract property details from descriptions, automatically populating listing forms. A logistics app could use Tool Integration to connect the AI to inventory systems, enabling natural language queries like “Which warehouses have Widget X in stock?”
Because processing happens on-device, there are no per-request charges, enabling cost-effective AI at scale. This makes previously expensive features like document analysis and writing assistance viable for businesses of all sizes.
Recommendation: Businesses should explore the full spectrum of AI and machine learning technologies to find the most effective solutions for their specific needs.
From predictive analytics and recommendation engines to computer vision and natural language processing, there are numerous ways to harness intelligence to benefit users and drive business growth.
“It’s important to remember that generative AI is not the only form of AI. Although it has captured headlines for the last year or two, there are loads of other ways to benefit users with the thoughtful use of AI and ML.“
—BRAD WEBER, INSPIRINGAPPS CEO
Advanced predictive analytics can provide valuable insights into future trends and user behaviors. Intelligence can use data analysis to predict popular features, design elements, and evolving user needs. This foresight can inform decisions, helping to create digital products that meet current user expectations and are well-positioned to adapt to future demands.
Apple’s advancements present both opportunities and challenges for businesses of all sizes. By focusing on seamless integration, user privacy, and delivering tangible benefits through smart algorithms and machine learning, businesses can position themselves for success. The key is to approach all development decisions with a user-centric mindset, focusing on how technologies can solve problems, streamline processes, and create meaningful benefits for your target audience. In other words, always prioritize creating value for your users.
Apple Intelligence enhances business operations through on-device AI capabilities, including automated writing assistance, intelligent data extraction, real-time translation, and predictive analytics. For businesses, this means improved productivity through features like smart email responses, document summarization, visual content recognition, and seamless cross-platform workflows—all while maintaining data privacy through on-device processing.
Apple Intelligence comes included with compatible Apple devices at no additional cost for core features. Unlike cloud-based AI services, the Foundation Models framework allows businesses to access on-device AI capabilities without per-request fees. However, some advanced features requiring cloud processing through Private Cloud Compute (PCC) may have usage considerations, and third-party integrations (like ChatGPT) require separate agreements. For details, see Apple PCC Core Security & Privacy Requirements.
Apple Intelligence differs from competitors through its privacy-first approach, which includes on-device processing, seamless integration across Apple’s ecosystem, and no ongoing cloud costs for many features. This prioritizes user privacy and offline functionality, making it ideal for businesses handling sensitive data or operating in environments with limited connectivity.
Yes, Apple Intelligence can be disabled through device management settings. Enterprise administrators can control Apple Intelligence features through Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions, allowing businesses to customize which AI features are available to employees while maintaining security compliance and data governance requirements. See Apple Enterprise for details.
Apple Intelligence is designed with enterprise-grade security through on-device processing, Private Cloud Compute for complex tasks, and zero data retention policies. Business data processed through Apple Intelligence remains on the device whenever possible, and when cloud processing is required, data is not stored, logged, or accessible even to Apple, meeting strict enterprise security and compliance requirements. For details, see Private Cloud Compute: A new frontier for AI privacy in the cloud by Apple Security Research.
Apple Intelligence requires modern Apple silicon chips and is available on iPhone 15 Pro and later, iPads with M1 chips or newer, Macs with Apple silicon, and Apple Vision Pro. For businesses planning device upgrades, ensure compatibility with Apple Intelligence by selecting devices with sufficient processing power to run on-device AI models effectively. For requirements, see Apple Intelligence Overview.
Businesses can use Apple Intelligence through App Intents integration, Shortcuts automation, and the Foundation Models framework for custom applications. This allows existing business apps to become discoverable through Siri and system-wide search, enables intelligent workflow automation, and provides direct access to on-device AI capabilities for custom business solutions without relying on external AI services. Learn more about Apple Intelligence features.
Contact InspiringApps for more information.
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