New Siri and AI: What Wall Street is expecting from Apple's developer conference

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicks off on Monday, June 8, at the iPhone maker's headquarters in California. The event could be a catalyst to redefine Apple as a "leader in the AI race" and spur a revaluation of company stocks, Wall Street analysts said, according to Business Insider (BI) and Bloomberg. At the conference, the iPhone maker is expected to unveil a new version of its AI-powered Siri assistant, powered by Alphabet's Google Gemini technology and Nvidia chips. The updated Siri will launch as early as September, The Information reported.

What Wall Street analysts think investors should pay attention to:

- New AI features and their monetization. Analysts at Goldman Sachs expect Apple to launch an updated version of Siri with artificial intelligence support in September - to coincide with the release of the next iPhone. If the company can reveal plans to monetize AI at the conference, it could change the iPhone maker's position in the AI market and strengthen the legacy of outgoing CEO Tim Cook in September, Business Insider notes.

Apple, the publication reminds us, has long been considered a laggard in AI. The company first announced AI features, including an update of Apple Intelligence with local AI capable of performing tasks for users, back in 2024, but since then it has postponed its plans to develop artificial intelligence, Bloomberg writes. For the past two years, investors have been waiting for Apple to make breakthroughs in this area, and now expect the company to unveil a long-awaited update to its Siri digital assistant, as well as its other AI features and capabilities, at WWDC.

"We believe WWDC is an obvious catalyst that could help move Apple into the 'winners in the AI race' category (both in market perception and in practice)," Morgan Stanley analysts agree with this position (quoted in BI). The updated Siri/Apple Intelligence 2.0 has the potential to become the primary solution for distributing the AI workload, they added. "Siri and Apple Intelligence 2.0 have the potential to provide consumers with a kind of agent-based artificial intelligence at a lower cost than other market players," the analysts said, emphasizing that Apple will use one of the world's largest device user bases in doing so.

- Cost savings - Bernstein analysts emphasized that Apple's status as an artificial intelligence distributor, rather than a direct model developer, allows the company to benefit from the technology without the multi-billion dollar costs incurred by other IT giants.

"No company is better positioned to implement consumer AI than Apple - if they get it right!" - noted Bernstein analysts (quoted in BI). Apple doesn't have to spend $200 billion a year on capital expenditures like its competitors do, they said. That said, the company "has access to the best models on the planet through partnerships and can still monetize AI in a variety of ways, including through third-party partnerships," Bernstein added.

- The scale of the platform. " Apple is in a unique position in that it has avoided a massive capital expenditure boom and actually has the most massive platform for utilizing artificial intelligence," Daniel Newman, CEO of analyst firm Futurum Group, also pointed out (quoted in BI).

"I think a proper modernization of Siri could have been a complete game changer [in the market] because Apple didn't need to be first. It just needs to get there in time. And given how early in AI development we are, they [Apple] still have a chance" to succeed, the expert added.

- AI as a means to accelerate iPhone upgrades. "I've become more confident in Apple's ability to deliver on AI projects, but we really need to see the results of their [the company's developers'] work for me to feel more comfortable guaranteeing sustainable long-term growth," Bloomberg quoted Kyle Levins, an information technology analyst at investment firm Harding Loevner, as saying. AI, according to the analyst, "has the potential to significantly accelerate the iPhone refresh cycle": "If we realize that this cycle becomes larger, longer and more sustainable, I think we can expect to see further upside in the stock as well," Levins noted.

Apple's stock adds about 2% to $303 apiece in trading on June 8; it's up 15% since the beginning of the year. Morgan Stanley analysts noted that "a fine-tuned AI platform and a clear vision of agent-based artificial intelligence could raise the valuation of the company's securities to $365-$385 with upside potential to $440." The lower end of that target suggests the stock is up nearly 19% relative to the last closing price. The most optimistic estimation assumes growth of the securities by 43%.

Investment bank Wedbush, which set a $400 target price on Apple shares, said that monetizing artificial intelligence and services could add between $75 and $100 per share to the value of the company's securities, which is not currently factored into the current market price, Business Insider reports. Wedbush's valuation of Apple's stock implies a 30% increase.

- UBS analyst David Vogt expects AI features "to be interesting use cases for consumers, but unlikely to spur significant demand for iPhones," Bloomberg reports. Investor disappointment could leave the company's securities vulnerable given its valuation. The stock trades at a multiple of more than 33 to projected earnings, well above its long-term average and not far off its 2020 peak, when the multiple reached 35.3, the highest since 2007, the agency notes.

- "The only thing that makes me wonder is the company's valuation, as the growth numbers have been good but not strong enough to justify trading near twenty-year highs on multiples," Kyle Levins added.

- "I wouldn't expect [Apple shares to surge upward on the back of the WWDC conference], but I think they would be a safe haven to wait out a possible correction in the tech sector. In the meantime, there is some upside potential depending on whether they [Apple officials] offer something to drive the device refresh cycle," Phoenix Financial Services chief market analyst Wayne Kaufman said.

Overall, according to the Wall Street analyst consensus forecast, of the 51 analysts who watch Apple securities, the majority - 33 - recommend buying the iPhone maker's securities (Buy and Overweight ratings), 15 advise holding Apple shares in a portfolio and only three recommend selling (Underweight and Sell ratings).

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor