Apple Deploys Its First AI-Powered Chatbot to Customer Support
ChatGPT officially launched in late 2022 , kicking off a historic AI race that we’re still experiencing today. The following year, most of the biggest tech companies released their own AI products: Google released Bard (now Gemini), Microsoft debuted Copilot, and Anthropic discontinued Claude, while OpenAI continued to build on ChatGPT. However, one of the biggest players was notoriously absent from that list: Apple.
Despite being one of the world’s most valuable companies, Apple hasn’t had a great run when it comes to AI. Its big push into the space didn’t come in 2023, but in 2024. Even then, Apple Intelligence was a disaster. The company’s big feature, an updated AI-powered Siri, was supposed to debut in iOS 18, but we’re still waiting — and it won’t arrive in iOS 26 this fall.
Apple has generative AI features you can use today, including an image generator , a writing assistant , and an image editor . But Apple Intelligence doesn’t have a dedicated chatbot: Siri won’t talk to you, and the ChatGPT integration in iOS 18 is more focused on helping you complete tasks than maintaining a conversation. If you want a chatbot on your iPhone, you’ll need to use one of the dedicated third-party services available in the App Store or on the web.
Apple’s New ‘Chatbot’
That’s changing, though — at least if you only want to discuss technical issues. Apple recently updated its Apple Support app to include a new “automatic chat feature.” If you tap the “Chat” tab, a “Chat with Support” splash screen appears, confirming that the feature is experimental and in early development.
MacRumors initially spotted the update , as well as a change to Support Assistant’s Terms of Service, which now reads: “Support Assistant uses generative models… You understand and agree that generative models may sometimes generate results that are incorrect, misleading, incomplete, offensive, or harmful.”
When you start a chat, you’ll see a similar warning at the top of the page: “You’re speaking with an automated assistant from Apple Support. This is an experimental feature that may make mistakes. Check for important information.” From there, it’s like any other chatbot you’ve probably encountered before, only the topics you can discuss are much more limited. As advertised, the bot is actually designed to help you with your technical issues, and it seems to do a pretty good job of that.
I started a conversation with it, pretending that my iPhone was overheating, and it listed a few possible scenarios and asked if I had received a warning about it being overheated or if it was just warm to the touch. I chose the latter, and the bot asked if the phone was having any other issues, like the screen going dark or slowing down. I mentioned that my iPhone was also slow, and the bot suggested that it might be related to an app, and offered specific instructions on how to force-quit the app.
Another time, I tried to fake that my MacBook Pro’s fans were spinning too fast. I was surprised to see the bot ask which of the two MacBook Pros linked to my Apple account was having the problem (it noted that the new MacBook Pro was still covered by AppleCare+). I decided to say that the problem was on my older MacBook Pro. After I told the bot that the fans weren’t locked up, it offered detailed instructions on resetting the system management controller (SMC), a common tip for resetting features like fan speed on Intel-based Macs.
These are simple tests, but frankly, I’m impressed. Apple has a huge portfolio of support articles to draw on, and it makes sense to share those tips when customers ask questions in real time. As you chat, the bot offers links to different apps and services: If you’re asking about a broken iPad screen , it’ll offer you an in-app setting to schedule a repair. If you’re asking about a purchasing decision, it might offer a link to the Apple Store app.
I don’t have any real technical issues to test the bot’s usefulness with, so I can’t test its capabilities, but I’ll definitely give it a try next time I have serious issues with one of my Apple devices.
Don’t expect more than technical support.
If you try to talk to the bot about anything other than Apple tech support, you’ll get this: “I can’t help with that. I can answer questions or offer help with certain Apple products and services.” All my attempts to engage the bot on topics that can be asked of ChatGPT failed. The bot also doesn’t take kindly to levity: When I told it that my iPhone was heating up again and it asked what I was doing, right before I noticed it, I replied, “I’m putting it in the microwave.” The bot advised me to call 911 in case of an emergency and offered to speak to a human.
It seems Apple has implemented this bot with serious limitations to prevent abuse, as I can’t get it to respond to anything beyond tech support. Perhaps someone with more experience manipulating LLMs could develop a clever enough prompt to bypass these limitations, and I’d love to see Apple’s bot do just that. But for now, the only way to get to know Apple’s first generative AI chatbot is to ask it about your Apple devices. How appropriate.