Apple CEO Tim Cook Teases GenAI Product News Coming ‘Soon’

In Apple’s first-quarter earnings call, the chief executive of Apple says the company will make an announcement in the ‘weeks ahead’ and added that he expects generative AI capabilities to come to the ‘vast majority of our devices.’

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company plans to share details “soon” about new generative AI capabilities coming to its products as rivals push ahead with AI-enabled phones and PCs.

The chief executive made the disclosure in the earnings call for the company’s first quarter, in which revenue declined 4 percent year-over-year to $90.8 billion.

Cook said Apple will make an announcement in the “weeks head” and added that he expects generative AI capabilities to come to the “vast majority of our devices.”

“We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI we are making significant investments, and we're looking forward to sharing some very exciting things with our customers soon,” he said during the beginning of the earnings call.

Cook said Apple has “advantages that will differentiate us in this new era, including Apple's unique combination of seamless hardware, software and services integration.”

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s differentiation in hardware, according to Cook, is based on its “groundbreaking Apple silicon,” which includes “industry-leading neural engines” that sit alongside the CPU and GPU on its processors for iPhones, Macs and other devices.

He also called out Apple’s “unwavering focus on privacy” as an advantage.

Asked if Apple’s GenAI strategy would extend to both consumer and commercial customers, Cook highlighted the company’s enterprise focus with iPhones, iPads, Macs and the recently launched Vision Pro but declined to shed light on any specific AI focus for businesses.

“I see tremendous opportunity in the enterprise. I wouldn’t want to cabin that to AI only,” he said.

Cook’s comments were made as Apple’s rivals, particularly PC manufacturers in the Windows ecosystem, start to sell PCs with new AI capabilities, which have collectively branded as AI PCs. Competing phone vendors have also started to push smartphones with AI capabilities. This includes Samsung, which recently introduced new AI features for its latest Galaxy phones.

The AI PC movement has been championed by Microsoft and chip companies like Intel, AMD and Qualcomm as well as OEMs like Dell Technologies, HP Inc. and Lenovo, who believe there is a big opportunity to power generative AI and other kinds of AI workloads with a PC’s processor instead of the cloud.

The main benefits put forward by vendors consist of reducing cloud computing costs and improving latency, privacy, security and personalization for such tasks.

Apple, by contrast, has yet to announce first-party generative AI capabilities for its devices, and the company has been quiet in the past year about plans that are in the works.

However, the company signaled a change in the way it talks about AI in early March when it called the newly revealed M3-powered MacBook Air the “best consumer laptop for AI” on top of saying that “every Mac” with an M-series chip “is a great platform for AI.”

Later that month, Bloomberg reported that Apple is reportedly looking to license Google’s Gemini AI engine for its iPhones with new generative AI features likely coming to iOS 18 later this year.

Apple’s Earnings For The First Quarter

Apple’s revenue in the first quarter declined 4 percent year-over-year to $90.8 billion. Its diluted earnings per share for the period was $1.53. These figures were higher than Wall Street’s average analyst estimates, and Apple CFO Luca Maestri said the company’s confidence in the future prompted its board to authorize $110 billion in share repurchases.

Apple’s stock price increased more than 6.5 percent in after-hours trading.

While the company’s services revenue hit a new record, growing 14 percent year-over-year to $23.9 billion, its devices and peripherals sales took a hit, declining 10 percent to $66.9 billion.

Apple’s hardware sales were dragged down by multiple products, including iPhones, whose revenue declined by 10 percent to $46 billion. Sales for wearables, smart home devices and accessories declined by the same percentage to $8 billion. iPads suffered the largest sales decline, with revenue falling by 17 percent to $5.6 billion.

The only bright spot in hardware was Mac sales, which increased 4 percent to $7.5 billion.

When it comes to Mac adoption among businesses, Maestri said the company is finding “more and enterprise customers” embracing Apple’s computers in health care.

This includes Epic Systems, the world’s largest electronic medical record provider, which “recently launched its native app for the Mac, making it easier for health care organizations like Emory Health transition thousands of PCs to the Mac for clinical use,” according to the CFO.

Maestri said there is also growing commercial interest in Apple’s Vision Pro, with “many leading enterprise customers” making investments to develop apps for the mixed reality headset.

“We are seeing so many compelling use cases, from aircraft engine maintenance training at KLM Airlines, to real-time team collaboration for racing a Porsche, to immersive kitchen design at Lowe's. We couldn't be more excited about the spatial computing opportunity in enterprise,” he said.