Apple hosted their annual World Wide Developers Conference (“WWDC”) last week. The event is a showcase of many software updates and is meant to serve as inspiration for iOS developers to create new App-store offerings. This year’s WWDC featured a host of updates, but largely did not meet investors’ expectations for AI-focused innovations. Key mentions of hoped-for products were substantially lower compared to last year. While the company’s AI ambitions remain high, investors are growing more skeptical.
Hey, Siri?
There were substantially no announcements about AI-focused enhancements to Siri’s capabilities. This was perhaps the main reason for the stock’s soft reaction to the conference, with the stock down 3% for the week as of midday Friday (according to FactSet). Siri arguably stole the show in 2024, with demos showcasing abilities to cross-reference applications and become a lot more helpful than current use cases. However, the voice assistant hasn’t gotten much smarter in the year since these lofty demos, with Apple pushing promised updates into the future. After failing to live up to last year’s high bar, Apple largely avoided demoing or even talking about Siri at this year’s event.
According to the event transcript compiled by FactSet, “Siri” was only mentioned twice in 2025’s WWDC keynote, a lot lower than last year’s 60 mentions. The only update, provided by Craig Federighi, SVP-Software Engineering at Apple, noted “we’re continuing our work to deliver the features that make Siri even more personal. This work needed more time to reach a high quality bar and we look forward to sharing more about it in the coming year.” This represents another push for potential updates. Further, Apple Intelligence, another of the company’s internal efforts to furnish their users with advanced capabilities, was also downplayed throughout the event. As shown in the chart below, “Apple Intelligence” was mentioned only 34 times this year, meaningfully lower than last year’s 61 mentions according to transcripts compiled by FactSet. With other AI innovators continuing to advance, investors may be sensing that Apple is falling further behind.
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A Waning Premium
The reaction of Apple’s stock price to these latest announcements leaves shares at nearly their lowest price compared to the S&P 500 (proxied by SPY) since the AI-era began at the end of 2022. As shown below, Apple’s stock price relative to SPY has swung back and forth meaningfully since the end of 2022, representing investor’s changing perceptions of how well the company may be able to utilize AI. The stock was catalyzed by 2024’s WWDC amidst hopes of enhanced features. However, the stock has given all the outperformance back in the previous year, with the ratio now near the low end of the range. This waning premium compared to the index may reflect investors’ preference for more direct AI-beneficiaries.
Apple’s WWDC left a sour taste with investors. Compared to the broader S&P 500, Apple’s stock price is nearing relative lows since the AI-era began. It may be reflective of the company’s lackluster innovation, with this year’s keynote address focusing less on organic innovation in hoped-for products than year’s past. While the company is waiting to launch products once their high quality bar is met, unripe products don’t sit well with investors in the fast-paced technology landscape.
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For more content by Blake Anderson, CFA®, Associate Portfolio Manager click here
