There has long been speculation that Apple will at some point introduce a subscription tier for Apple Intelligence. But that reality has just become significantly more likely, according to a new report from a credible source.
Writing in his weekly Power On newsletter this weekend, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman discusses the early response to Apple’s new Siri AI. Damning it with faint praise, he describes the tech as “just good enough” to ease the company’s AI crisis, but even faint praise is better than many Apple watchers feared as recently as last month.
Adequate performance, following years of Siri being palpably unfit for purpose, is actually something of a turnaround. And as Gurman notes, Siri AI is at a very early beta stage. Over the next year, he reasons, it’s likely to increase in accuracy and popularity enough that a paid subscription model becomes plausible.
If that seems like a strange leap in logic–for Apple to struggle to win back legions of dissatisfied Siri users and then shut that improved Siri behind a paywall where most iPhone owners won’t get to access it–then it’s worth bearing in mind how much the company has leaned into subscription services in recent years. This has been one of the major pivots of the Tim Cook era, with the launches of Apple Music, Arcade, TV, Fitness+, News+, and many more all happening on his watch. Cook recognized years ago that iPhone sales won’t hold up indefinitely, and that Apple needed to broaden its portfolio with recurring services revenue.
It’s also important to note that Siri AI wouldn’t disappear completely as a free tool. Only certain of its more advanced features, according to Gurman’s theory, would be moved to a paid tier. Image generation and conversations are two likely candidates for this.
There’s already been a small clue that Apple is prepared to separate Siri AI into multiple tiers. Complaining about the high server costs associated with running its AI platform, the company announced that some features will have daily usage limits, though subscribers to higher iCloud+ tiers will enjoy “increased access.” It’s not clear yet what those limits are or what benefit iCloud+ beings, but It’s a relatively small leap from that policy to higher-paying users getting access to more advanced features.
