Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has put forward a compelling counter-argument: While many believe AI will eventually replace the smartphone, he argues the opposite. The iPhone will become a "digital passport" - and Apple will ultimately benefit from AI, rather than suffer from it.
It's become a standard narrative in the tech industry: Apple is lagging behind in AI, losing out to OpenAI and Google, and the iPhone will sooner or later be replaced by AI-native devices. Now, one of the most prominent AI CEOs is contradicting this theory. Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and head of the AI search engine Perplexity, sees the iPhone not as a victim of the AI revolution – but as its real winner.
Srinivas' statements on the "This Week in AI" podcast carry weight. The Perplexity CEO previously worked in AI research at OpenAI, Google, and DeepMind – he knows the industry and its dynamics from the inside. His core thesis: The better AI becomes, the more important the iPhone becomes as a hub for personal data. And that plays right into Apple's hands.
"The iPhone will not be disrupted by AI"
The position sounds surprising at first. Srinivas states verbatim that the iPhone will "not at all" be disrupted by AI – thus contradicting the narrative of several major Silicon Valley investors who see smartphones as a dying breed in the long run. His reasoning: Modern AI systems increasingly need more context to be truly useful. And in many cases, this context is already present on the iPhone.
Srinivas describes the iPhone as a "digital passport." Payments, identity verification, health data, communications, photos, and personal memories all converge on the device. This is a database that no one else - not OpenAI, not Google, not Anthropic - possesses in this form. The better AI becomes, the more valuable this treasure trove of data becomes, and thus, the more important the device on which it resides.
Apple's "undervalued" asset: Apple Silicon
Another argument from Srinivas focuses on hardware. Apple Silicon – the chip family that powers all Apple devices from the iPhone to the Mac – is an "undervalued" asset, precisely because AI workloads are increasingly running locally on the device. Specifically, Srinivas speaks of "agent loops" that could be executed locally in the future – that is, complex AI workflows that currently require centralized server infrastructure. When these processes migrate to the user's own device, they access local files, apps, messages, emails, notes, and photos.
This aligns perfectly with Apple's long-standing privacy philosophy. The more processing takes place locally on the device, the less sensitive data needs to be sent to external servers. This is precisely why Apple has invested heavily in Neural Engines in recent years – special AI accelerators that are built into every current iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The internal AI platform that Ternus is currently implementing in hardware development also focuses on precisely this interface between hardware and AI.
Time as an advantage
Srinivas' assessment of the pace is interesting. Other analysts accuse Apple of being too slow – Srinivas sees this as an advantage. Apple has "the ability to take its time and do things the way it wants" because the company has enormous structural advantages: The brand enjoys great trust, and the Apple ecosystem is extremely sticky – once you're in, you rarely stay with the competition for long.
This assessment aligns with the approach Apple has pursued for years: not being first to market, but having the best product. With the iPhone (competing Nokia), the Apple Watch (competing Fitbit), and soon with Apple Glasses (competing Meta), the company has proven that delayed but mature products can redefine the market.
What this means for Apple fans
Srinivas' statements offer an outside perspective – and are therefore all the more interesting. He's not part of Apple's camp, but runs a company that theoretically competes with Apple's AI ambitions. The fact that he, of all people, considers the iPhone strategically irreplaceable sends a powerful message.
For Apple users, this means that the iPhone will likely become more important, not less important, in the coming years. The planned new products, such as Apple Glasses or the equivalent device from Gurman's recent report, will not replace the iPhone, but rather complement it – and these complements, in turn, won't function without an iPhone connection. The iPhone will remain the center of the Apple ecosystem.
The opposing view: Apple still has to deliver
Of course, Srinivas' assessment is not the final word. The Perplexity chief himself acknowledges: Apple has not yet unveiled a frontier model that directly competes with OpenAI or Google. Siri lags behind conversational AI systems that have already set the standard for user expectations. The delays with the new Siri and the negotiations with Google about Gemini as the Siri foundation prove this.
Another problem: Many iPhone users already use third-party AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity. This shows that control over the hardware doesn't automatically guarantee control over the intelligence. Apple owns the platform, but the AI experience on that platform continues to be heavily influenced by the competition. If the new Siri expected at WWDC fails to impress, Srinivas's thesis will be discredited faster than he'd like.
The AI market is currently arguably the most dynamic industry of all. Any forecast could be outdated in six months. But the fundamental question Srinivas raises remains crucial: Who benefits from improved AI in the long run? Who controls the data – or who builds the models? From his perspective, the answer is clear: Apple, with over two billion active devices worldwide, sits on the most attractive AI data set in the industry. Whether the company, under its new CEO Ternus, makes the most of it will be one of the most exciting questions of the coming years. (Image: Shutterstock / DenPhotos)
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