Apple's New Shortcuts App Lets You Build AI-Powered Workflows

Apple has used AI to make its visual-scripting tool, Shortcuts, more user-friendly in iOS 27.
The Shortcuts app was originally designed for power users who wanted to automate repetitive tasks, create workflows, or set up multi-app actions. The new version of Shortcuts will now allow users to write a prompt and simply describe what they want to do.
This new feature is powered by Apple Intelligence, which interprets natural language descriptions to generate the necessary steps.
“While extremely powerful, the process of creating these shortcuts can feel, well, complicated,” admitted Celcia Dantas, Sr. Manager of Home Software Product Marketing during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday.
The AI update makes the Shortcuts app more accessible and expands what non-technical users can achieve, as they no longer have to worry about selecting the right app actions or variables.
Dantas also provided an example of a real-world use case: users could design a shortcut that automatically notifies their partner when they leave work and provides an estimated time of arrival home.
Instead of having to figure out how to build this type of automation, users can simply type in a request, and Shortcuts will then assemble the necessary system and app actions. In this case, it would create an automation that runs the shortcut when the user leaves work — accessing a stored address — then calculates their ETA using Apple Maps, and sends the alert via Messages.
Users can also make edits or changes by describing them, Apple notes. In the “leaving work” example, for instance, the user could later edit the shortcut to start playing a favorite podcast.
The updated version of Shortcuts will be released with iOS 27 later this fall.
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Apple has used AI to make its visual-scripting tool, Shortcuts, more user-friendly in iOS 27.
The Shortcuts app was originally designed for power users who wanted to automate repetitive tasks, create workflows, or set up multi-app actions. The new version of Shortcuts will now allow users to write a prompt and simply describe what they want to do.
This new feature is powered by Apple Intelligence, which interprets natural language descriptions to generate the necessary steps.
“While extremely powerful, the process of creating these shortcuts can feel, well, complicated,” admitted Celcia Dantas, Sr. Manager of Home Software Product Marketing during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday.
The AI update makes the Shortcuts app more accessible and expands what non-technical users can achieve, as they no longer have to worry about selecting the right app actions or variables.
Dantas also provided an example of a real-world use case: users could design a shortcut that automatically notifies their partner when they leave work and provides an estimated time of arrival home.
Instead of having to figure out how to build this type of automation, users can simply type in a request, and Shortcuts will then assemble the necessary system and app actions. In this case, it would create an automation that runs the shortcut when the user leaves work — accessing a stored address — then calculates their ETA using Apple Maps, and sends the alert via Messages.
Users can also make edits or changes by describing them, Apple notes. In the “leaving work” example, for instance, the user could later edit the shortcut to start playing a favorite podcast.
The updated version of Shortcuts will be released with iOS 27 later this fall.
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