Samsung, Google, and Microsoft have all put AI into their gadgets, and now, so is Apple.

But they’re doing it differently, with a mix of onboard smarts and private cloud computing. When that’s not enough, third-party AI assistants like ChatGPT come in.

That means the entire iPhone is about to get a major AI makeover with something the company calls Apple Intelligence.

“The most popular thing will probably be the genmojis,” said Jason Hiner, Editor-in-Chief at ZDNet.

These are custom emojis you can create on the fly, thanks to AI.

“So now they don’t have to make a bunch of different kinds of emojis. People can do it on their own. I think people will have a lot of fun with that,” said Hiner.

Apple’s take on AI includes strict privacy promises.

“They’re using their servers with their silicon to make sure that whenever the model on the device is not enough, and they need to go to the cloud, everything remains private and secure,” said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies.

“They are doing something a little bit different that’s more based on your own data, and that that data about you stays on your phone,” added Hiner.

The system is twofold: Siri can access your private emails, texts, and more, or consult Apple’s private cloud computing when it needs more horsepower than your phone. And if that’s not enough, you can send your request to an external AI assistant. ChatGPT will be supported at launch.

Eventually, users will have the ability to choose other AI assistants like Google’s Gemini.

Many of Apple’s new AI smarts require an iPhone 15 Pro or later.

“You need something really powerful under the hood in order to enjoy all of these new features. So I think there’s a lot of people who are going to have upgrade envy,” said Mark Spoonauer, global editor-in-chief of Tom’s Guide.

Siri now has the potential to be the most useful personal assistant yet.

“I think to a certain degree with Samsung’s phones and the Galaxy AI, it feels bolted on after the fact where I think with the iPhone and iOS 18 in particular, it feels very much woven in to the system, especially with Siri,” added Spoonauer.

“I think what Apple does really well is extruding the fundamentals. And so I think if we were to look at what’s going to happen with AI and iPhone, it will just become part of the phone and we won’t be like, oh, it’s AI and iPhone, it’s like the phone does things really well,” said Jacklyn Dallas, a YouTube creator with a channel called NothingButTech.

Developers are already playing with iOS 18. The software will be available in a public beta in July, and the final release date will be in the fall.