AI Is the Elephant in the Room at Apple’s (AAPL) Developer Conference

Apple’s (AAPL) annual Worldwide Developers Conference starts on June 9, and once again artificial intelligence (AI) is dominating the conversation.

Last year’s conference was notable for the number of underwhelming AI announcements and promises from Apple under its “Apple Intelligence” banner. Ultimately, the rollout of Apple Intelligence and many of its features was delayed, weighing on AAPL stock.

This year, Apple is both tempering expectations and hoping to redeem itself with its AI products and services. However, despite the company’s best efforts, many analysts and investors still have high-expectations for AI being added to its consumer electronics. The big hope continues to be that Apple will make Siri a useful conversational assistant similar to AI chatbots such as ChatGPT.

Tinkering with AI

Apple has sprinkled new AI features into its products, such as with text and image generation, and notification summaries. But it has yet to unveil a killer AI application for its iPhone, Apple Watch, and other devices. Many analysts say a redesigned Siri that operates on AI and can work across installed apps and the internet from simple voice commands is what fans of Apple are waiting on.

While plans for a revamped Siri have been delayed, many analysts say it would be a mistake to count out Apple in the AI race. After all, this is a company with an installed base of two billion devices. Anything it puts out will instantly be in front of a huge number of consumers. Plus, while Apple wasn’t the first to make a smartphone, tablet, or smartwatch, it eventually dominated those technologies.

AAPL stock has declined 19% this year.

Is AAPL Stock a Buy?

The stock of Apple has a consensus Moderate Buy rating among 29 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 16 Buy, nine Hold, and four Sell recommendations assigned in the last three months. The average AAPL price target of $228.79 implies 12.60% upside from current levels.

Read more analyst ratings on AAPL stock