Jun 2025
When Siri Shortcuts debuted with iOS 12 in 2018, they were hailed as a clever way to simplify repetitive tasks. Today, they’re more than clever; they’re foundational.
From novelty to necessity, Apple’s voice automation platform delivers real value in the AI era.
With Apple Intelligence quietly reshaping how apps and operating systems interact, Siri Shortcuts now offer a glimpse into the AI-first future Apple is building. While some of the more advanced features (like personalized Siri) are delayed until 2026, many businesses and consumers are already experiencing tangible benefits from voice automation—benefits that go beyond convenience into operational efficiency, inclusive design, and smart personalization.
This post explores how Siri Shortcuts are being used in 2025, what they mean for product teams, and how businesses can use them strategically to gain a competitive edge.
Apple’s recent updates have shifted Shortcuts from a productivity niche to a core part of the iOS experience.
Voice search adoption continues growing, with consumers increasingly using voice assistants for product research, according to marketing automation trends research. McKinsey’s research identifies conversational AI as a top investment area for businesses in 2025.
The takeaway? Voice isn’t an input method; it’s an interface. And yet, Siri lags behind competitors in commerce-related accuracy, according to AI statistics research, which found Siri gives correct answers only 68% of the time compared to other voice assistants. This creates both challenges and opportunities for product managers building voice-first experiences.
Consumers increasingly expect smart, context-aware experiences that work across devices, especially in hands-free, multitasking, or accessibility scenarios. Apple’s strength lies in its unified platform, design consistency, and privacy-first architecture. These qualities make Siri Shortcuts particularly effective for routine actions, personalization, and secure automation (use cases where precision and trust matter more than general knowledge).
Consumers use Siri Shortcuts to trigger everything from morning routines to personalized workouts, all hands-free. Thanks to deeper system integration, these aren’t just voice commands; they’re context-aware suggestions that anticipate intent.
A user might say, “Start my workout,” and their fitness app opens, plays their usual playlist, begins a timer, and dims notifications. Or their phone might automatically surface a “Check traffic to daycare” shortcut at 4:30 p.m., knowing they usually leave then.
This kind of proactive intelligence makes devices feel less like tools and more like thoughtful companions.
Voice automation also serves an essential accessibility function. For people with visual impairments, mobility challenges, or situational limitations (like cooking or driving), Siri Shortcuts offer control without touch.
In 2025, users can assign voice commands to specific tasks, control apps through natural language, and even generate voice-based responses with personalized voices.
Conversational AI has become a major area of enterprise investment, and voice is often the entry point. For many organizations, voice is being layered into existing tools rather than prompting a full rebuild.
Voice triggers now sit on top of internal workflows to help automate repetitive tasks like note capture, CRM updates, or scheduling, reducing friction without needing to re-architect the entire stack. In this way, Siri Shortcuts and App Intents offer a rare opportunity: meaningful innovation with a relatively low barrier to entry.
Teams using internal apps can automate CRM logging, schedule meetings, or pull reports with a single command. Example: a sales rep wraps a meeting and says, “Log my meeting notes,” triggering a Shortcut that transcribes their voice, tags the client, and updates the CRM.
Product and design teams are using Siri and generative AI to reduce friction in repetitive tasks, freeing up bandwidth for strategic work.
Using App Intents, businesses can surface their app functionality in system-wide experiences like Spotlight, Lock Screen widgets, and proactive Siri suggestions. This makes it easier for users to engage with your product, and harder for competitors to interrupt that relationship.
Voice data also reveals user patterns that traditional clickstream analytics can’t. It’s a faster feedback loop that feeds smarter, more adaptive experiences.
Designing for voice isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also a business growth lever. Voice-first experiences help apps reach users in contexts where traditional interfaces fall short. That includes people with disabilities, multitaskers, drivers, and anyone with limited dexterity or screen time.
“AI has enhanced the Apple user experience for many years. Has your phone predicted your commute time to work when you’re 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, CEO, InspiringApps
This philosophy—delightful, non-intrusive, and privacy-focused AI—shapes how we approach voice automation at InspiringApps. Siri Shortcuts, when thoughtfully implemented, embody that same principle: powerful, but invisible.
“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 (or other engines in the future) are beneficial, users will explicitly approve each data share.”
—Brad Weber, CEO, InspiringApps
This privacy-first approach not only builds user trust but also helps businesses comply with emerging data protection regulations while delivering powerful voice experiences.
Voice integration and the use of conversational AI, including features like Siri, are becoming increasingly notable and integrated into daily life and business solutions. Voice AI can contribute to more personalized user experiences by allowing for natural language queries. In a business context, it can automate tasks like data entry and lead scoring in CRM systems, saving time and improving productivity.
AI-driven features often operate subtly in the background. Advanced AI can even generate natural-sounding voices for individuals who have lost their voice, based on historical recordings, to facilitate communication in public forums.
Whether enhancing accessibility, streamlining workflows, or surfacing personalization, Siri Shortcuts in 2025 represent a rare alignment of technical potential and user value. Voice is no longer a novelty—it’s a strategic interface, and we’re here to help you get started. Let’s talk →
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