Apple Intelligence features will appear before the end of the month with the iOS 18.1 update. The iPhone 16 series and iPhone 15 Pro models will get as many as six artificial intelligence (AI) features once the update ships. These features are based on both the Cupertino-based tech giant’s own large language models and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. However, an analyst at a major financial company said that smartphones may not provide “serious AI performance” for the next two to three years.

Apple’s intelligence may not reach peak performance until 2027

These comments came from Edison Lee, an analyst at Jeffries, a US-based multinational independent investment bank and financial services company. Citing an analyst, The Street reported that Apple’s Intelligence features in their current form may not be enough to significantly increase sales of the iPhone 16 series.

That’s contrary to predictions by several industry veterans, who said the AI ​​features would start a “super cycle” of purchases for a newly launched smartphone lineup, which is typically seen when a smartphone gets a feature change or hardware update. However, reports claim that demand for the iPhone 16 series hasn’t picked up significantly, despite the fact that no other iPhone apart from this year’s version and last year’s Pro model supports Apple Intelligence.

Lee reportedly added that the reason Apple Intelligence in its current state is insufficient is that the iPhone’s hardware needs to be redesigned before it can handle more advanced AI capabilities.

However, the analyst also believes that in the long term, the tech giant’s AI offering may have a leg up on the competition, as “Apple is the only integrated hardware and software company that can use its own data to offer low-cost, personalized AI services.” the publication quotes the words of Lee.

By the end of October, the iOS 18.1 update will add several new Apple Intelligence features to compatible iPhone devices. These are expected to include writing tools that can generate text based on prompts, notification summaries that summarize less important notifications, cleaning in photos, a new notification priority feature, memories in photos, and new Siri capabilities.