Apple has big plans for iOS 18 as the company is developing AI-centric features, which will be released in the latter half of next year. The company has paused iOS 18 development to fix ongoing bugs and issues in iOS 17. Despite the pause, iOS 18 will house promising features for the future. A prominent analyst has now shared details on the iOS 18 and what users can expect from the update.

iOS 18 update will be "ambitious and compelling" as Apple extends efforts in generative AI technology

Mark Gurman has been sharing details on Apple's forthcoming iOS 18 update for some time. It was recently reported that the company is working on its generative AI technology, which will be embedded in iOS 18. The company will also offer exclusive features for the iPhone 16 lineup next year, indicating that some new hardware changes could come with next year's flagships.

In his Power On newsletter, Gurman states that Apple has referred to iOS 18 as an "ambitious and compelling" update that will bring new features and UI design changes. Additionally, since the company is working on the stability of iOS 17 at this stage, we suspect the efforts will stretch to iOS 18 as well. New iOS versions have been released for the past few years with many underlying bugs and issues. Apple does release fixes soon after a bug or an issue is discovered, but it does not offer a finished product to the end user.

The analyst did not highlight specific features but stated that iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will house "relatively groundbreaking" features for the iPhone and iPad. Since iOS 14, Apple has failed to bring significant design changes to the platform. In 2020, the iPhone received widgets for the first time for the Home Screen. Potentially, iOS 18 will be Apple's subsequent update that brings visual changes to the table.

As mentioned earlier, Apple's efforts to stabilize iOS 17 will not impact the release of iOS 18 next year. However, the company could have less time to clear under-the-hood bugs or issues by the end of the cycle. Apple could take an extra week to compensate for the loss of time for the final release.

Apple will announce iOS 18 at its WWDC 2024, which will be released to developers for testing. Since WWDC 2024 is still months away, the company could change its plans to bring significant updates. We suspect the company is working on generative AI features for iOS 18, and Siri could be Apple's primary candidate for an overhaul.