Who uses Apple Intelligence? You won’t believe the percentage of users
Tim Cook, we have a problem
Roland Moore-Colyer from TechRadar collected the results of a survey among his readers. He asked one simple question: “do you use Apple Intelligence?” The numbers were merciless. Only 4% of respondents answered “yes, it’s quite good”. The remaining 96% chose the option “no, it’s not for me”. It’s hard to find a more clear verdict.
The context is impressive. We are talking about a company with market valuation close to three trillion dollarswith one of the most recognizable brands in the world. It has access to resources that most competitors can only admire from afar. Apple could have hired the best AI specialists, bought key startups and built something truly groundbreaking. Instead, it serves users summaries of notifications that regularly trigger false alarms.
It’s hard not to see an analogy here. Microsoft has been trying to outdo Bing for years as a viable alternative to Google. The brand, resources and infrastructure were there from the beginning. One thing was missing: a product that people would actually want to use. Copilot repeated this pattern. Pushed into Windows, Teams and Office, present everywhere but nowhere rooted in real user habits. Apple Intelligence looks like the same story, only in a silver case with the apple logo.
One of the commenters under the article put it without beating around the bush. “Apple can’t get its AI strategy right even if everyone’s life depended on it” wrote a user with the nickname “laughfactory”, adding that the company has completely lost any vision on this topic. And it’s hard to disagree with that, looking at the numbers.
The problem is even more visible because AI is today one of the main fronts in the fight for users. Android offers tools that actually do something useful. Google Gemini is a real used product. ChatGPT has hundreds of millions of users. Meanwhile, Apple Intelligence exists somewhere on the outskirts of the everyday life of iPhone owners, of which there is plenty.
The salvation was supposed to be integration with Google Gemini, which was supposed to strengthen Siri and breathe life into the entire Apple AI ecosystem. But this feature is still not available to users. Additionally, there have been rumors of a delay in iOS 27, which means Siri may be stuck in its current state longer than anyone would like.
Apple has already experienced more than one setback. Maps was a disaster in 2012, and the company emerged unscathed. But the AI market is growing at a pace that does not forgive long interruptions. Users are learning new habits right now. If these habits form around competitors’ tools, it will cost Apple much more than a billion dollars to acquire another startup to reclaim this space.
