I was amused during the iOS 18 and the iPhone 16 releases that the main visual indicator of Apple Intelligence -- the full-screen, color-at-the-edges Siri animation -- was noticeably missing. Apple even lit up the edges of the massive glass cube of its Apple Fifth Avenue Store in New York City like a Siri search.

A prime example is Microsoft Recall, a feature meant to record the user's screen and index the information to make it searchable with AI. It was announced in May 2024 and initially supposed to be released to the public in June 2024, but was delayed several times for privacy reasons, finally launching in preview in April 2025.

As rivals make headway with their AI hardware strategies, Apple stakeholders want to hear how the company's approach to AI has changed.