OK - You Asked For It: Apple Intelligence

Happy Friday everyone!

First of all, a massive thank you for the response to the relaunch update last time.? I’m rather humbled by the number of impressions/view/messages I have received.

So, I guess I’d better get on with providing some actual content.? Therefore let’s get cracking with the most popular item I’ve had people ask me to comment on…and, be warned, this could be a long one!

Apple Intelligence in the Enterprise

I had actually planned to talk about something other than Apple to start off with, given the wider scope of what we now do at Kocho, but it seems that this is a hot topic, so let’s start here!?

Ok – so unless you’ve been living under a rock, back in June you'll probably have heard that Apple in their WWDC 2024 event started hyping up the upcoming ‘Apple Intelligence’ features that would be shipping with iOS18, iPadOS18 and MacOS Sequoia.

Fast forward to the BIG Apple annual event last month and we have the new iPhone 16 models we expected, but there is an Apple Intelligence shaped hole in the launch.? iOS18 ended up shipping without ANY of the Apple Intelligence features (they have been pushed to iOS18.1).

It left the event looking a little light on content to be honest and only emphasised that the iPhone 16 range really is the most iterative to date I’d say in terms of hardware changes….there wasn’t really much to sell the latest device over last year’s one.

Or Was There??

In actual fact there is a key feature that the new iPhone have that really is rather important after all….and it’s under the skin.

Apple Intelligence (rather uniquely) runs on-device.? Therefore it needs Apple Silicon (CPU) and big chunk of RAM to do it.

Which devices then??

In the iPhone world, the answer is not that many (at least not yet anyway).? The new iPhone 16 models will naturally get it (they literally were designed for it).? More interestingly, of the older phones, only the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models will run it.

This is very, very unusual for Apple.? For years we’ve grown used to all the new features coming to all the older devices eligible for the update.? For iOS18 that means we’re going to see a 2 tier feature set very soon, with the vast majority of devices (as of now) out there unable to get it.

iPad is a bit better with 5th generation iPad Air and iPad Pro devices getting it, and Mac is even better still with pretty much all M-Series (Apple Silicon) Macs having it.

Perhaps not great, but it gets worse?

There’s more!!

Apple Intelligence will launch as English only and the rumours are that the release schedule will be:

• ?US – End October 2024
• UK, Australia & New Zealand – December 2024

So, we’re now into a subset of a subset of the user base will be able to get it.

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And worse…?

Live in the EU?? It seems you can forget about Apple Intelligence then!? Revenge by Apple for the EU forcing USB-C across devices? Of course I'm joking here, its actually because of EU DMA according to Apple....it is confirmed that the EU won’t be getting it.? That’s a massive chunk of users locked out, even if they meet the criteria for device/language.

So, all in all, this is an impending complex headache heading in the direction of Enterprise Device Admins!?

The big thing Admins have always loved about Apple is their ‘one size fits all’ approach to the OS…this is no longer going to be the case and potentially looks to remain the case for years to come.

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Ok, but what is it exactly?

Telling that we’ve got this far and not actually talked about the features yet!? Apple’s advertising has already launched and, combined with the iOS18.1 betas, we’re now getting a decent idea of what’s coming.? Some items that have caught my eye:

1. ?Make Siri work better!?
2. GenAI tools you’d expect such as Rewrite and Proofread – imagine Grammarly running on your phone natively.
3. Image Generation / Manipulation capabilities
4. Native Email Client GenAI features.? This will get the Enterprise paranoid!
5. Wider ChatGPT integration – this is where things get very interesting with seemless handoffs to ChatGPT (and on by default it seems).

?The advertising is interesting if you’ve seen it.? One is a classic GenAI use case of summarising an email.? Not sure it’s that compelling to be honest, but it is kind of quirky/cool.? Probably a future Byte about the use cases for GenAI in the making here as it feels even Apple is struggling to sell it a bit…

Have to say that there isn’t a lot here that seems particularly unique to Apple, and arguably looking like it may even be a bit behind where Google are with the latest Android OS/Devices, but if Apple nail the usability and integration of the features (which they’re historically pretty good at) then we can expect users to start using it pretty quickly.

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Do Enterprises need it?

In the Enterprise, I’m struggling to see a killer use case for Apple Intelligence...yet.? Bear in mind the Enterprise has been on the GenAI bus for a while now and has a LOT of other options already available to it.? Most notably Microsoft’s Copilot for M365 where we’re doing a lot of work at Kocho in the adoption space at present.

What is interesting though, is that Apple Intelligence is something that taps into an increasing security challenge…..Shadow AI.? Fundamentally GenAI is cropping up and bolted on all over the place now….and it is now going to be embedded up in the OS of a device with Corporate data on it. And when users start using things on Apple they have a tendency of expecting to be able to use it in the workplace as well.

Inevitably, I have already been asked on multiple occasions:

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Can we control it? (in other words Can I turn it off!)

It’s not unheard of for Apple to release a feature with limited capability for Admins to control it.? The good news is actually, this time, that this isn’t the case….so Yes….you can.

In fact, Microsoft have already released a very detailed update detailing what can and can’t be controlled using Intune/MAM:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/intune-customer-success/microsoft-intune-support-for-apple-intelligence/ba-p/4254037

As with many device restrictions in the land of Apple, you need to have ‘supervised’ devices to disable things at the device level.? These days for Corp Devices we’re talking about Apple Business Manager (ABM / DEP) devices usually.? If you’ve set this up then you’re in luck.? If not see below for a link to get help.

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What Now??

Well, it’s not long until 18.1 ships.? I would suggest at least formulating your position and plan for this…as we know you won’t be able to avoid updating devices.

Once you have the position you can then start to plan for the arrival.? Of course, you’ll all be ready and waiting already.

But if you do need a bit of help with any of this then, as always, Kocho have to skills to sort this for you.? Feel free to get in touch:

https://kocho.co.uk/contact-us/