Apple’s best AI idea looks a lot like vibe coding in Shortcuts and Safari
Apple’s AI is mostly catch-up, but its Shortcuts feature could make iPhone automation much easier. In the first beta, it works for simple tasks and struggles with more complex ones.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
The Verge argues Apple’s most useful AI idea is not flashy chatbots or image tools, but natural-language automation in Shortcuts and Safari. The feature feels like “vibe coding” for your phone, though the first beta is still rough and incomplete.
Apple is trying to let people tell their phone what they want in normal words, like a robot helper that sets up shortcuts for them. It works for tiny jobs now, but bigger jobs still break, like a helper who can fetch a sock but not fold the laundry.
Analysis
Apple’s AI pitch is mostly catch-up
The article says Apple’s WWDC AI announcements looked familiar: chatbots, text tools, image generation, and Siri features that already exist elsewhere. Most of Apple’s current AI effort, in the piece’s framing, is Apple bringing known ideas onto the iPhone.
Shortcuts is the real opportunity
The author argues that Apple’s best AI idea is in Shortcuts, where users can describe an action in plain English and let the system assemble it. The example that works is simple: “Send a text to Anna with three kissy emojis.” Apple Intelligence creates the shortcut, and it sends the right message.
That matters because Shortcuts has long been powerful but hard to use. Apple is trying to make it “more approachable than ever” by letting users describe what they want instead of manually building every step.
The first beta is still shaky
The article is blunt that the first developer beta “mostly doesn’t work” for anything complex. Requests involving app launches, timers, camera steps, stitching images together, or third-party apps often fail or get sent back to the traditional editor. That suggests Apple still needs a lot of developer support through App Intents before the system becomes broadly useful.
Why the author likes the idea anyway
The piece says this is not AI as a dramatic new interface. It is AI used for what it is good at: interpreting intent and navigating data or app actions. That makes it feel closer to vibe coding than to a chatbot. Instead of vibe-coding an app, Apple is letting users vibe-code their phone.
Key points
- Apple’s AI announcements mostly look like catch-up with rivals’ features.
- The strongest idea is natural-language automation inside Shortcuts.
- A simple text-with-emojis shortcut works in the first beta.
- More complex shortcuts and third-party app actions often fail.
- Apple still needs broad developer support for the system to become useful.
If Apple improves Shortcuts and gets more developers to support it, ordinary users could automate tasks without learning a complicated tool. That would make AI feel useful in daily life, not just impressive in demos.
The feature may stay frustrating if it keeps failing on anything beyond simple requests. The article also warns that developers may resist supporting it if shortcuts let people skip opening their apps entirely.
