Harnessing AI for Everyday Productivity
Big AI News
Yesterday, on October 28, 2024 Apple launched iOS 18.1. With it, Apple Intelligence came to the masses. In the official opinion of MailMe, Apple intelligence represents the first AI product that represents a functional shift in the way that humans interact with their devices.
Apple Intelligence introduces features like automatic email and article summaries, a new way to navigate options menus, intelligent photo cleanup, and Smart Replies for streamlined communication. his launch highlights how AI is moving beyond novelty to become a practical tool for productivity—helping people focus on what matters rather than getting bogged down in repetitive tasks.
These tools allow people to immediately offload otherwise menial tasks with the click of a button, rather than navigating across several interfaces to generate something that the human could do better themselves. This is in stark contrast to tools like ChatGPT which, while useful, often feel more like enhanced search engines or quick writing aids than productivity powerhouses.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows
Not all aspects of this release have been smooth. Early feedback from users online shows some comically poor summarizations from Apple’s local language models.
Running these models directly on user devices comes with trade-offs: Apple’s AI is managing to perform impressive tasks locally without freezing devices, but small language models still struggle with complex tasks. The limitations of current device processing mean that the accuracy of summaries, for example, still has room for improvement. And while it’s unlikely users want their phone to overheat or lag while summarizing an email, it’s clear that today’s mobile hardware can only go so far without the equivalent of a high-powered Nvidia GPU in their pockets.
Undoubtedly, users aren’t going to be ok with Siri overheating their phone for five plus minutes to summarize their email, so this is the best level of accuracy that 2024 can offer a local model without stuffing an NVidia RTX 4090 into your pocket.
Yet, in terms of user experience, Apple has achieved something unique. By building on familiar Siri commands and enhancing her intelligence, Apple has created a more cohesive personal assistant experience than any other consumer service currently offers. However, this version of Siri still has its limits: it’s great for helping with emails and appointments, but it isn’t yet capable of handling high-level computational tasks, like data analysis or complex scheduling across users. Those features may still be a few generations away.
So what is the future here?
Apple is undoubtedly on the right track—most people don’t care about the sophistication of AI models; they care about meaningful, immediate improvements in their lives. Apple Intelligence has made email and texting easier for millions. But as powerful as on-device AI has become, hardware limitations in 2024 mean it can only go so far.
It’s important to meet users where they are (their phones), but the hardware to accurately process their requests isn’t there yet in 2024.
Email, however, offers a scalable alternative for powerful AI integration. By allowing AI agents to process requests on remote servers, we can unleash the true potential of high-level computational power without device constraints. With email as the interface, users can enjoy rapid responses, sometimes within a minute—faster than most emails ever arrive. Through email, AI can access a user’s most relevant context and data, such as spreadsheets, presentations, and calendars, and act as a collaborative “colleague.” The only change that this represents in the workflow is the “to:” line of the collaboration between employees.
At MailMe, we believe this server-based AI solution is the best approach for personal assistance at scale. Email AI could be the assistant that every enterprise needs while being user-friendly enough for even the least tech-savvy users.
If you’d like to invest in AI tools that will turbocharge your actual work productivity (instead of just summarizing your text messages), email our founders to learn how you can use our AI agents to act as a data analyst, outbound sales professional, or personal assistant for your business!