5 small but clever Apple AI features that actually look useful

Apple mostly steered clear of the big, dumb AI announcements we often see at the big tech keynotes — you know, things like AI pop song generators, AI-generated avatars, and virtual AI try-on tools that make for great headlines but aren’t all that practical.

OK, so Apple did indulge in some “look at this!” AI tomfoolery, like photo-retouch tools that can wipe groups of people out of the frame and a revamped Image Playground app that can essentially deep-fake your friends (ugh).

That said, Apple also unleashed a series of smaller Apple Intelligence and Siri AI features (all due to arrive this fall) that might actually be useful on a daily basis.

Here are five of my favorites.

Pay Your Share

Apple

Here’s a Siri feature that should ease the pain of splitting tabs at restaurants. When the check arrives, simply scan it with your iPhone’s camera, and the new AI-enhanced Siri will grab all the items on the bill and put them in a list.

Select the items you ordered (quantities are supported), add a tip, and send your share of the amount to your tablemate via Apple Cash. I love it.

Describe an Extension

Apple

Here’s a vibe-coding tool that anyone can use. Using natural language prompts, Safari users will be able to create browser extensions on the fly that enhance the web pages they visit; for example, you could ask Safari to build an extension that saves and tracks cooking recipes, and Apple Intelligence will make it so. 

Create a Pass

This little Apple Wallet feature is small but brilliant. With help from Apple’s Visual Intelligence functionality, the “create a pass” tool lets you create an instant Apple Wallet pass from memberships cards, tickets, and other items that come with barcodes or QR codes but don’t already offer Apple Wallet integration.

Just aim your iPhone’s camera at the paper pass or ticket, scan it, and boom–Visual Intelligence sucks in the details and generates an Apple Wallet pass for you, just like that. 

Automatically Fix Passwords

Apple

While Apple execs barely mentioned AI agents during Monday’s WWDC keynote, the company did manage to slip in a powerful but under-the-radar agentic AI tool for its Passwords app.

The Automatically Fix Passwords feature uses AI agents to log into websites and strengthen your weakest passwords, an ability underpinned by Apple’s Private Cloud Compute architecture. 

Call Context

Apple

On the phone with customer service and need to dig up your account number? It happened to me just the other day, and I had to hunt through Gmail to find it while the service rep twiddled their thumbs.

Enter Call Context, which enables Apple Intelligence to automatically display account numbers, confirmation codes, and other relevant information while you’re on a call with a business.