Beyond Siri: iOS 27 Adds Practical AI Features to iPhone

While Siri's AI revamp grabbed headlines at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, the company's broader AI strategy is emerging through a range of smaller, integrated features across its software.

Instead of requiring users to adopt the revamped AI-powered Siri for all AI benefits, Apple is embedding AI into existing apps and services, emphasizing real-world problem solving. Your iPhone will soon handle tasks like splitting restaurant bills among friends, securing passwords after data breaches, automating workflows, and organizing information with minimal manual effort.

Individually, these features might lack the dramatic impact of a Siri that truly understands personal context and acts on your behalf. Yet together, they paint a vision of AI focused less on conversational bots and more on making Apple's software inherently smarter and more capable.

Beyond Siri's AI, here are the smaller AI features in iOS 27 we're most excited to try. They're currently available in the developer beta, with a public beta arriving soon, ahead of the general release later this fall.

Bill splitting

With iOS 27 arriving later this fall, customers can split restaurant bills using Apple Cash. Powered by Apple Intelligence, simply take or upload a photo of the receipt, and a new option appears to divide the bill with others. Apple Intelligence extracts key details—items ordered, quantities, tip, and total. You select your items from the receipt, then send a request to the group chat for others to do the same. Others can pick their items and quantities, even choosing half (1/2) if sharing with someone. Payment is made with a double-click, just like any other Apple Cash transaction.

Image credit: Apple

The bill-splitting feature feels intuitive—it appears only when needed and integrates with familiar apps like Messages and Apple Cash. It also intelligently calculates each person's share of tax and tip along with item costs.

Password update

Thanks to password managers—Apple's Passwords app or third-party options like 1Password, Dashlane, or Bitwarden—you've likely created complex, hard-to-guess passwords. But that's no longer sufficient. As countless data breaches have shown, your passwords can still fall into the wrong hands through no fault of your own.

Image credit: Apple

Apple's new password-updating feature uses AI to proactively identify weak or compromised passwords—such as those exposed in data breaches. Rather than requiring manual updates, it securely navigates websites, signs in, and upgrades your passwords to stronger versions.

Messages' one-tap suggestions

If you consider the automatic SMS passcode display above the keyboard one of Apple's best features, you'll appreciate the new one-tap suggestions in iOS 27.

Image credit: Apple

With Apple Intelligence, Messages offers one-tap suggestions based on conversation topics. For example, if a friend texts asking you to bring something to a meetup, a suggestion may ask if you'd like to add it to your reminders. If someone requests photos from an event, Apple Intelligence can recommend relevant photos by understanding keywords, locations, and people in your Photos Library. Planning a dinner or work meeting? Messages can prompt you to add the event to your Calendar. And more.

Once again, the feature appears as a handy tool within your chat, not as an overtly AI-powered addition.

Call context

Another low-profile feature in iOS 27 aims to ease calls with customer service by surfacing key information you might need to share with the representative. For instance, when calling about an airline reservation, Call Context displays your confirmation code right on the call screen.

Image credit: Apple

The feature uses Apple Intelligence to extract information from your Mail emails, processing entirely on-device for privacy. It operates quietly in the background—no need to interact with an AI assistant; the needed details simply appear.

Adding Calendar events

Following third-party apps like Fantastical, Apple now lets you add or edit Calendar events by simply describing them in natural language. Behind the scenes, Apple Intelligence extracts contacts and locations and generates a title for the event. This makes adding events to Apple Calendar easier, without needing to worry about filling specific fields.

Vibe coding Shortcuts

Shortcuts is one of iPhone's most powerful apps, but many users avoid it due to its technical complexity. The app allows you to script tasks, workflows, and automations that simplify your life. However, non-power users often find it frustrating, resorting to online tutorials or Shortcut galleries to find the tools they need.

Screen captureImage credit: Apple

In iOS 27, you can simply describe what you want your iPhone to do. Apple suggests setting your alarm based on next day's calendar events, or having your favorite productivity apps open in a specific layout when you connect a Magic Keyboard to an iPad. But you don't need to get that technical—Shortcuts can handle everyday tasks like automatically texting your partner your ETA when you leave work, or turning on porch lights when your DoorDash order arrives.

Less Home app spam

Smart home users know apps can overwhelm them with many trivial notifications that are actually part of one event. For example, if a partner comes home, opens the smart garage, checks the mail, and enters the house, you might receive a notification for each action—feeling like spam. With Apple Intelligence in iOS 27, the Home app understands how these actions connect and sends a single notification summarizing the overall activity: someone arrived home and closed the garage door.

Image credit: Apple

The AI can also help you search for specific clips, like a package delivery or other event. The Home app will highlight noteworthy clips at the top of the screen for review.

Organized tabs in Safari

Another subtle AI feature is Safari's tab organizer. With Apple Intelligence, Safari understands your browsing across sites and groups tabs into relevant topics. For example, if you have multiple tabs open for a trip you're planning, Safari can bundle them into a travel tab group. These groups appear at the top of the browser, above the webpage, for easy access when you resume your research.

Image credit: Apple

Apple emphasizes that the AI behind this respects user privacy, never exposing your browsing data to anyone—including Apple.