Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2026 opens today, June 8, with a keynote at 10 a.m. PT. The main event is iOS 27 and the largest expansion of Apple Intelligence since its debut. A new CoreAI framework will let developers — and users — connect third-party AI models like Claude and Gemini directly to Siri, while a suite of new photo editing tools, a redesigned Visual Intelligence, and natural language Shortcuts automation round out what Bloomberg's Mark Gurman calls one of Apple's most ambitious software updates in years.

Setting the Stage: Apple Had Promises to Keep

WWDC24 introduced Apple Intelligence to enormous fanfare, but many of the announced features were still missing or incomplete by the time WWDC26 arrived. This year Apple has a credibility gap to close. iOS 27 is the vehicle for doing that, and the scale of what's expected suggests the company has been working hard to close it.

CoreAI: Opening the Siri Ecosystem

The most structurally significant change in iOS 27 is CoreAI, a new framework that opens Apple's core AI capabilities to third-party AI providers. Currently, Siri's only external AI integration is with ChatGPT. Under CoreAI:

  • Users will be able to install alternative AI models — Claude and Google Gemini have reportedly been tested — through standard App Store apps
  • Developers gain access to APIs connecting their apps to Siri and Apple's first-party AI applications
  • Third-party AI agent developers can tap into Siri as an orchestration layer
  • Apple's own capabilities — Image Playground generation, Writing Tools — will be accessible to external providers

This is a notable strategic shift. Apple is moving from a closed, single-partner AI integration to an open marketplace model, potentially making iOS a platform layer above the AI model competition rather than a participant in it.

Visual Intelligence Gets a Bigger Stage

Visual Intelligence is moving from its current home — primarily tied to the iPhone's physical Camera Control button — into a dedicated Siri option inside the Camera app. The goal is to surface the feature to far more users.

New capabilities coming to Visual Intelligence:

  • Nutrition label reading — scan food packaging for detailed nutritional data
  • Business card contact extraction — automatically import contact details from printed sources
  • Expanded on top of existing plant identification, calendar event extraction, and image-based search
100+ New WWDC26 video sessions
1,000+ Developers at Apple Park in person
3 Third-party AI models tested with Siri

AI Photo Editing Suite

Apple is addressing widespread criticism of the original Clean Up feature — which frequently left visible artifacts — with a full rebuild and an accompanying set of new tools:

  • Extend — drag the edges of any photo outward and fill the new space with AI-generated content that matches the existing scene
  • Reframe — adjust the apparent angle of a spatial (3D) photo after the fact without a reshoot
  • Enhance — general-purpose image quality and color improvement
  • Natural language photo editing — describe a change by voice or text; may not land in the initial iOS 27 release but is in active development
For developers: The CoreAI framework is the one to watch closely. Once the API details are published after the keynote, third-party apps will have a path to surface their AI capabilities through Siri — a distribution channel that reaches billions of devices. Check the WWDC26 session catalog for implementation specifics.
What's not coming yet: Health AI features from Apple's internal "Mulberry" project — including blood sugar monitoring and camera-based workout tracking — are not expected in the initial iOS 27 release. Apple may announce them separately after WWDC26.

Full Feature Preview

Feature Platform Expected Status
CoreAI (third-party AI integration) iOS 27+ Announced today
Visual Intelligence in Camera app iOS 27 Announced today
Extend / Reframe / Enhance photos iOS 27 Announced today
Safari Organize Tabs (AI clustering) iOS/iPadOS/macOS 27 Announced today
Natural language Shortcuts iOS 27 Announced today
Grammar checker (systemwide) iOS 27 Announced today
Health AI (Mulberry) TBD Excluded from initial release

Key Takeaways

  • WWDC26 keynote begins June 8 at 10 a.m. PT; iOS 27 is the anchor announcement.
  • CoreAI lets developers integrate Claude, Gemini, and other third-party AI models with Siri and iOS system apps.
  • Visual Intelligence moves to the Camera app for broader exposure and gains nutrition label and business card reading.
  • A five-tool AI photo editing suite (Extend, Reframe, Enhance, rebuilt Clean Up, and natural language editing) is expected.
  • Health AI features remain on hold; expect a separate announcement after the conference.

What This Means for the AI Industry

Apple's CoreAI strategy is essentially a bet that iOS can become the platform layer for the AI era — the same way the App Store became the distribution layer for the mobile era. By inviting OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google onto the platform rather than fighting them directly, Apple positions itself to capture value at the OS level while letting AI providers compete on quality.

For AI companies, being available through Siri on iOS devices is immediate distribution to over a billion users. The terms Apple sets for that integration — and how much control it retains over the experience — will be one of the most consequential platform decisions in the AI era. Today's keynote is the first chapter of that story.