Apple is expanding its development of generative AI tools by deploying a new chatbot-style assistant for AppleCare advisors that can quickly answer technical support questions from customers, according to a report from MacRumors’ Joe Rossignol.
The new tool, simply dubbed “Ask,” relies on a generative AI backend developed by the company and allows AppleCare advisors to quickly obtain technical support responses for customers seeking technical help for their devices. The tool is currently limited to a select number of AppleCare advisors in online chats or phone call support. Once the advisors receive an answer from Ask, they pass on its response to their customers.
Apple has built an in-house knowledge bank for Ask, which the tool uses to answer questions from AppleCare advisors. The report adds that the advisors can rate Ask’s response as helpful or unhelpful, with the feedback sent to the company for further performance improvements. Ask also supports follow-up questions per query, but the report notes that they are currently limited to five questions per topic. The company also has plans to expand Ask for more advisors once enough feedback is collected.
The company is pushing AppleCare advisors with access to Ask to prioritize using the generative AI tool ahead of relying on conventional search or asking more senior advisors for technical help. The report further states that Apple is confident of Ask’s ability to tackle “complex or unfamiliar” questions objectively and accurately as it relies on the company’s in-house knowledge bank.
The push for generative AI will also expand beyond consumer-facing features, as the company is also preparing big AI features for developers with a new version of Xcode. This version will feature AI capabilities allowing developers to generate code based on natural language requests and predict and autofill blocks of code automatically. Like Ask, Apple engineers have reportedly begun using Xcode AI features as a way to test them before their eventual launch for third-party developers, which is planned for later this year.
Beyond Ask and Xcode, the company is strongly rumored to be preparing a wave of generative AI features to be unveiled at WWDC 2024 as part of iOS 18 and other major software releases. Earlier this month, Tim Cook stated that Apple is “excited” to publicly share its work on generative AI later this year. The breadth of AI features heading to iOS 18 has made some people within the company refer to the update as one of the biggest in iPhone’s history.
