Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC) kicks off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday with Wall Street expecting the company to lay out an ambitious AI strategy anchored by a significantly upgraded Siri and deeper integration across its software platforms.
The June 8 event in Cupertino is widely seen as a pivotal moment for the iPhone maker, which has faced mounting pressure to demonstrate it can compete in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape.
Analysts at both Bank of America and Wedbush say WWDC will signal whether Apple can translate its hardware installed base, silicon roadmap and App Store distribution into a defensible agentic AI platform.
Bank of America, which carries a Buy rating and a $380 price target on the stock, said it expects Apple to emphasize deeper AI integration across iOS and macOS, improvements to Siri and app-intent capabilities, and new developer tools.
The bank cautioned that WWDC alone is unlikely to resolve the debate over whether Apple has fallen behind rivals due to its lack of an in-house frontier model, but called the conference "an important marker" for the company's AI trajectory.
Central to the announcements is expected to be an enhanced Siri experience, including a standalone Siri app, powered in part by Google's Gemini models running on-device and within Apple's Private Cloud Compute environment. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called the Gemini selection a pivotal development, describing it as "the first step for Apple to create a foundational AI consumer platform." Apple will reportedly pay Google roughly $1 billion annually for access to a custom 1.2-trillion-parameter Gemini model.
The iOS 27 update is also expected to allow consumers to choose from multiple AI providers, including Claude and Gemini, with third-party models able to integrate across Apple Intelligence features. Wedbush said it sees the broadening of the developer ecosystem as central to Apple's long-term AI monetization story, projecting the company could generate an additional $15 billion in annual services revenue as it builds out AI-driven features across health, finance, fitness and other categories.
WWDC also marks a significant moment for incoming CEO John Ternus, who is expected to assume the top role from Tim Cook later this year. Wedbush said it views the conference as a "foundational moment" for Ternus's growth strategy, adding that his approach is unlikely to be passive.
The firm maintained its Outperform rating and $400 price target on Apple shares.
