ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Apple reportedly has an AI search within the works.
- The AI search expertise may have a standalone app and energy Siri.
- Well timed and strategic launch with broader success of AI engines like google.
With the launch of Apple Intelligence, Apple sought to enter the AI house after a considerably late entry. Nonetheless, a number of delays of its most sought-after function, together with Siri 2.0, have made it troublesome to maintain up with extra established rivals. A brand new report particulars an AI product within the works which will assist bolster Apple’s place.
On Sunday, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported within the Energy On e-newsletter that Apple’s recently-assembled Solutions, Data, and Data (AKI) group is engaged on a ChatGPT rival that can give customers simpler entry to the breadth of knowledge accessible on conventional search.
Apple didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
What’s the product?
The report stated that the product is supposed to operate as an “reply engine” that may present responses to basic data questions, leveraging the net. It is a main pivot from the present strategy, as Apple by no means developed its personal search engine, even within the pre-AI period. As soon as it got here to incorporating generative AI, it relied on OpenAI’s ChatGPT to feed customers responses that Siri cannot entry.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET’s father or mother firm, filed an April 2025 lawsuit towards OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI techniques.)
Apple is reportedly additionally exploring the creation of a standalone app for this expertise and back-end infrastructure that may energy the search capabilities for different Apple choices, together with Siri, Highlight, and Safari, sooner or later. This might be a serious win for customers as it could enable them to entry the data they want from the net conversationally and natively inside their favourite apps within the Apple expertise. The standalone app may additionally pose a worthy rival to these of different AI searches in the marketplace, resembling ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity, all accessible for obtain on iOS now — with the benefit that it could be native to the Apple ecosystem of instruments.
More and more, extra customers are turning to AI engines like google to conduct their queries for the above-mentioned queries. The Pew Analysis Heart simply launched a report displaying that Google customers are much less prone to click on on hyperlinks when an AI abstract seems, probably as a result of they discover all the info they want within the overview. Because of this demand, increasingly corporations have launched their very own takes on AI engines like google, making it strategic for Apple to discover this space.
This transfer is especially related now, because the US Division of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit towards Google has entered a cures section, which can put an finish to the multi-billion-dollar deal that makes Google the default search engine on Apple gadgets.
What can Apple do to face out?
Apple’s benefit is that it could combine its personal model of an AI search engine immediately into its merchandise, which billions of individuals depend on every single day. If Apple can create a search expertise that’s practical and really useful in getting customers the data they want sooner, it couldn’t solely be a function customers take pleasure in when trying to find new info, but in addition optimize different experiences on their telephones.
For instance, think about a Siri that might pull info in actual time from the net, perceive person intent, and serve the responses conversationally. Whereas that is, largely, what Siri 2.0 was alleged to be, a local AI search engine may additional improve its capabilities by having it pull immediately from an Apple product relatively than counting on a third-party stripped-down expertise. The AI search expertise may be accessible in apps like Messages or Mail to entry real-time details about what you might be sending communications about, which might be a great tool for customers.
One other added bonus is that it’s going to probably hold the identical look and interface of Apple’s ecosystem of gadgets, which Apple customers will not be solely accustomed to, but in addition want. For instance, when I’m requested which chatbot is the perfect match for customers, I usually inform customers who’re deep into the Google ecosystem of instruments and gadgets to make use of Gemini, as a result of, whereas it presents the general similar use case because the others, it has the identical feel and look of the google merchandise which make sit a greater match.
Nonetheless, it’s troublesome to beat Google, which has dominated the search marketplace for a long time. For instance, Bing tried to meet up with its personal integration of AI, and whereas it did contribute to a surge of over 40 million day by day energetic customers, it nonetheless pales compared to Google’s market share. In line with StatCounter, as of July 2025, Google holds 90% of the search engine market share worldwide, whereas Bing solely holds 4%. Whereas these numbers are discouraging, it does not appear to be Apple is searching for to compete within the AI house, however would relatively want so as to add on to what its customers can make the most of and make its suite of AI instruments extra strong.
