ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Apple reportedly has an AI search within the works.
- The AI search expertise might have a standalone app and energy Siri.
- Well timed and strategic launch with broader success of AI serps.
With the launch of Apple Intelligence, Apple sought to enter the AI house after a considerably late entry. Nevertheless, a number of delays of its most sought-after function, together with Siri 2.0, have made it tough to maintain up with extra established opponents. 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 Power On publication that Apple’s recently-assembled Solutions, Data, and Data (AKI) workforce is engaged on a ChatGPT rival that can give customers simpler entry to the breadth of knowledge obtainable on conventional search.
Apple didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
What’s the product?
The report mentioned that the product is supposed to perform as an “reply engine” that may present responses to basic information questions, leveraging the online. This can be 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 mum or dad firm, filed an April 2025 lawsuit towards OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI methods.)
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 could possibly be a serious win for customers as it will permit them to entry the data they want from the online conversationally and natively inside their favourite apps within the Apple expertise. The standalone app might additionally pose a worthy rival to these of different AI searches in the marketplace, reminiscent of ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity, all obtainable for obtain on iOS now — with the benefit that it will be native to the Apple ecosystem of instruments.
More and more, extra customers are turning to AI serps to conduct their queries for the above-mentioned queries. The Pew Research Center simply launched a report exhibiting that Google customers are much less more likely to click on on hyperlinks when an AI abstract seems, seemingly as a result of they discover all the data they want within the overview. On account of this demand, increasingly firms have launched their very own takes on AI serps, 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 part, 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 might combine its personal model of an AI search engine straight into its merchandise, which billions of individuals depend on day-after-day. If Apple can create a search expertise that’s purposeful and truly useful in getting customers the data they want quicker, it couldn’t solely be a function customers take pleasure in when trying to find new data, but additionally optimize different experiences on their telephones.
For instance, think about a Siri that might pull data in actual time from the online, perceive person intent, and serve the responses conversationally. Whereas that is, largely, what Siri 2.0 was purported to be, a local AI search engine might additional improve its capabilities by having it pull straight from an Apple product slightly than counting on a third-party stripped-down expertise. The AI search expertise is also accessible in apps like Messages or Mail to entry real-time details about what you’re sending communications about, which could possibly be a useful gizmo for customers.
One other added bonus is that it’ll seemingly preserve the identical look and interface of Apple’s ecosystem of gadgets, which Apple customers aren’t solely acquainted with, but additionally choose. For instance, when I’m requested which chatbot is the best fit for users, 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 provides the general identical use case because the others, it has the identical feel and look of the google merchandise which make sit a greater match.
Nevertheless, it’s tough to beat Google, which has dominated the search marketplace for many years. 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 daily active users, it nonetheless pales compared to Google’s market share. In response to 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 look like Apple is searching for to compete within the AI house, however would slightly choose so as to add on to what its customers can make the most of and make its suite of AI instruments extra sturdy.