Apple Intelligence in Apple Mail: What Does It Mean for Email Marketing?
Rumors were abuzz of artificial intelligence being a big part of Apple’s future operating systems, and day one at WWDC24 (Worldwide Developers Conference 2024) confirmed it. Apple announced its plans to heavily integrate artificial intelligence into the software side of things.
AI in email is nothing new; Gmail has been incorporating AI features for many years in features like spam filtering or the more recent Smart Compose and Smart Reply functions.
The difference, however, is that the reader still had to read their emails. That has changed with Apple’s new feature — read on to see what it is and how it works.
Artificial Intelligence Comes to Apple Mail
Apple has always been vocal about its commitment to user experience and privacy, and at WWDC ‘24, they unveiled their latest feature: Artificial Intelligence, or Apple Intelligence. This feature is the outcome of a partnership with OpenAI, the artificial intelligence giant, which inked a deal for their ChatGPT product to be a part of all future Apple hardware.
All of this AI goodness comes alive with the help of an on-device language model using 3 billion parameters. For tasks that require more computing, Apple Intelligence will reach out to a larger language model available running on Apple silicon servers.
As a part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, Apple Intelligence aims to act as a digital assistant for Apple users. It harnesses the power of LLM (large language model) technology to sift through your data and identify information that it considers critical or time-sensitive.
This data includes on-device content such as text messages, emails, documents, photos, videos, audio files, contacts, calendars, search history, and even Siri interactions.
The goal of all this data-crunching is to let AI be more useful in day-to-day chores, adding value and making life more efficient.
But What Does Apple Intelligence Actually Do?
Apple Intelligence brings these features to the future versions of Apple software:
- All-new Siri,
- Writing Tools,
- Priority Messages in the Mail app,
- AI summaries in Mail,
- Priority Notifications.
With Apple Intelligence, Siri can answer specific questions — it can analyze your data to give you far more accurate responses than a regular search function can.
Another AI-fueled feature is Writing Tools, which lets you write, rewrite, proofread, and summarize text in apps such as Mail, Notes, and Pages.
Apple Intelligence isn’t just for composition — it will also help users read, organize, and prioritize their emails, like a virtual assistant for email. It combines the power of generative models with personal context to sort the Apple Mail inbox.
With this new feature, you will find your most important emails waiting at the top of your inbox. Priority Messages shows you the most critical messages in a distinct box as soon as you open the Mail app. It selects messages for this section by analyzing your email content and choosing urgent tasks.
And you don’t need to skim through previews anymore — AI summaries provide key information without opening the email. For lengthier threads, a simple tap reveals all important details.
Apple Intelligence takes control of your notifications, too. With Priority Notifications, summaries appear right on your Lock Screen, letting you see key details from lengthy messages.
Besides all the AI stuff, we now get a Gmail-esque change in the Mail app, too.
Apple will now organize your inbox into these categories:
- Primary: For personal and critical emails.
- Transactions: For receipts and order confirmations.
- Updates: For social media notifications and news.
- Promotions: This will have marketing emails and coupons.
- Digest: A view that compiles all relevant emails from a specific business.
Which Devices Will Get Apple Intelligence?
Since there’s a minimum hardware requirement for Apple Intelligence, it won’t be rolled out like a software update; only select Apple devices will be able to enjoy the new features.
These 23 Apple devices will get access to Apple Intelligence:
- iPhone 15 Pro,
- iPhone 15 Pro Max,
- M1 MacBook Air (2020),
- M2 MacBook Air (2022),
- M2 MacBook Air (2023),
- M3 MacBook Air (2024),
- 13-inch Touch Bar M1 MacBook Pro (2020),
- 13-inch Touch Bar M2 MacBook Pro (2022),
- 14-inch and 16-inch M1 MacBook Pro (2021),
- 14-inch and 16-inch M2 MacBook Pro (2023),
- 14-inch and 16-inch M3 MacBook Pro (2023),
- 5th-gen M1 iPad Air (2022),
- 6th-gen M2 iPad Air (2024),
- 5th-gen M1 iPad Pro (2021),
- 6th-gen M2 iPad Pro (2022),
- 7th-gen M4 iPad Pro (2024),
- M1 iMac (2021),
- M3 iMac (2023),
- M1 Mac mini (2020),
- M2 Mac mini (2023),
- M1 Mac Studio (2022),
- M2 Mac Studio (2023),
- M2 Mac Pro (2023).
Apple Intelligence: Privacy Concerns
Apple’s AI announcement had an immediate and vocal reaction on social media, with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at the forefront of it.
Some of the common questions asked were: How can Apple upload personal data to its servers? How would the Cupertino-based tech giant ensure the privacy of its users would not be violated?
The answer to these questions lies in a highly technical product announced alongside Apple Intelligence: Private Cloud Compute (PCC).
According to Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, PCC only uses customer data to fulfill requests and never stores anything. The data will never be accessible to anyone, including Apple.
Here’s how it works:
- A user makes a request.
- Apple Intelligence analyzes whether it can be processed on the hardware itself.
- When more computational power is required, it calls on Private Cloud Compute.
- Private Cloud Compute then sends the data required for processing to Apple silicon servers.
- Apple silicon servers have features such as Secure Enclave, which protects critical encryption keys on the server just as it does on a user’s iPhone.
- Similarly, the “Secure Boot” feature ensures the OS running on the server is signed and verified.
- Trusted Execution Monitor makes sure only signed and verified code runs on the server.
- The final step is attestation, which allows the Apple device to verify the identity and configuration of a Private Cloud Compute cluster before it sends out an AI request.
Apple is so confident about the security aspect of PCC that it has invited independent experts to inspect the code that runs on its servers. As these announcements happened a few days ago, we are yet to see experts weigh in on the capabilities of PCC.
How Does Apple Mail AI Affect Email Marketers?
WWDC24 revealed one of the most significant updates to Apple Mail since Mail Privacy Protection, so it’s understandable that email senders are a bit jittery.
Let’s talk about the two main changes:
- The preview feature which summarizes emails.
- The re-arrangement of the Mail inbox into different tabs.
Email marketers need not worry about the preview feature immediately. Chances are the AI preview won’t be applied to promotional emails, but we’ll have a confirmation once the new software updates roll out.
However, if it does give AI previews of marketing emails, it means you will need to rework your email copywriting to better suit AI summaries. This extends to Priority Notifications, too — think of it as the new preheader text.
Whether this affects open rates or not, remains to be seen. Tracking open rates is already tricky thanks to the changes brought by Mail Privacy Protection in 2021, when iOS 15 and MacOS Monterey rolled out.
As for the re-arrangement of the Mail inbox — this is something email professionals are already familiar with, thanks to Gmail’s primary inbox. Senders should continue to focus on email deliverability and this should not really affect email marketing strategy. The goal is to maximize the chances of your email making it to the inbox; that continues to be the case.
In our opinion, this isn’t really an attack on email marketing; it’s about making life easier for email users. As long as you focus on best practices, your email marketing efforts will continue to hit the mark.
Campaign Refinery: Our Thoughts on Apple Intelligence
At Campaign Refinery, we welcome all changes that make life better for the email user. This is also why we always play by the rules; we believe email marketing is a symbiotic relationship between marketers and email subscribers.
As always, we will continue to focus on inbox placement as our top priority. As the platform with the best deliverability rates in the industry, this is the best strategy for long-term success.
If you’d like to side with the winning team and discover what elite email performance looks like, apply to become a Campaign Refinery sender today!
