For two decades, the smartphone has been the device people carry to access the Internet. Now it’s the device they carry to access artificial intelligence. Companies that understand the difference are building phones, forging $50 billion alliances, and racing to control the operating system that falls into the hands of the consumer.
according to bloomberg, Apple plans to let iPhone users choose the AI model that powers their device. Coming to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 this fall, the feature routes text creation, image editing, and Siri queries to providers of the user’s choice through a new settings option called Extensions. ChatGPT has maintained the only third-party slot on Apple devices since iOS 18. With the additions, it becomes one option among many on a platform with more than 2 billion active devices.
A platformer, not a typical racer
Rather than competing to build a world-class model, Apple is positioning its devices as a platform through which consumers can access AI from anyone. Providers sign up through their app store apps. Apple has already signed a $1 billion-a-year partnership with Google under which a custom Gemini model will power a rebuilt Siri, according to Apple. 9to5Mac. The Gemini Consumer app will also serve as a selectable front-end extension, making Google an infrastructure supplier to Apple and a competing option on the same front.
Apple’s own description of the system, found in pre-release builds of iOS 27, lays out a clear framework: The additions “allow you to access generative AI capabilities from installed on-demand apps, through Apple Intelligence features like Siri, Writing Tools, Image Playground, and more.” Apple also plans to tell users that it is not responsible for content generated by third-party models and will create a dedicated App Store section for compatible AI apps.
PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster writes in it Next newsletterTo put it directly: “AI has become a utility for consumers. Consumer utilities live on smartphones.” PYMNTS consumer AI adoption benchmark data, drawn from nearly 20,000 U.S. consumers tracked monthly, finds that the fastest-growing AI tasks over the past six months are household logistics, discount code searches, and meal planning. All those tasks that happen on the phone, not on the desktop.
OpenAI is losing ground
ChatGPT was the most downloaded app of 2025, generating $1.35 billion in App Store revenue for Apple that year, according to Apple. Bloomberg. Under Accessories, it’s one option out of several. The phone a person carries actually shapes the AI they use. Android users are 24% more likely to use Gemini than iOS users, because Gemini comes as a default option, according to PYMNTS INTELLIGENCE. It does not have to be selected. It just shows.
Advertisement: Scroll to continue
iPhone users are 12% more likely to be active AI users than Android users, and are more likely to want to use AI proactively and always on. According to Webster, “Google has the integration. Apple has the audience.” Add-ons allow Apple to solve this gap without winning the model race itself, giving the public access to the best integrations, on Apple devices, through the Apple App Store.
Calculus Tollbooth
Every AI subscription purchased through the App Store generates a commission – 30% in the first year, and 15% after that. Apple collects every query that flows through the device you create. As Webster writes: “Apple is the AI toll bridge, not the proxy highway.”
This position is subject to pressure from multiple directions. In April 2025, a federal district court found that Apple intentionally violated a previous injunction by blocking third-party payment options in the Epic Games case, according to the British Daily Mail. Bloomberg. Apple lost its attempt to temporarily halt these changes last week. The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal also ruled against Apple in a £1.5 billion class action covering 36 million consumers.
Add-ons expand the market rather than defend its walls. More AI providers on Apple devices means more subscription revenue flowing through the App Store even as individual commission rates come under scrutiny. Apple is expected to officially announce this feature at WWDC on June 8.
For all of our PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to our daily newsletter Amnesty International newsletter.
