The AI-Native Device: Will OpenAI or Apple Shape the Future of Intelligent Hardware?

A new kind of device is quietly making its way into the world—not defined by size or screen resolution, but by how it hosts intelligence.

At the centre of this shift are two forces converging on the same future frontier: OpenAI and Apple. Their paths are starkly different, but their goal may be shared—to redefine how humans interact with machines in the age of ambient, adaptive, conversational intelligence.

The AI-native device isn’t just a smarter phone. It’s a rethinking of what hardware is for in a world where intelligence is not an app, but an environment.

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From Smart to Situated

The concept of an "AI-native" device moves us beyond the era of task-based computing—messaging, maps, calendar entries—and into systems that interpret, learn, and respond in context. Not merely smart, but situated. Less transactional, more relational.

At WWDC 2025, Apple formally unveiled Apple Intelligence—its long-anticipated generative layer across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This includes on-device LLMs, enhanced privacy features, and the long-overdue rebirth of Siri as a multimodal assistant with memory, intent recognition, and app orchestration.

Apple’s approach is unmistakably Apple: tightly integrated, privacy-first, and reassuringly familiar. No disruption. Just evolution.

In contrast, OpenAI’s ambitions, still unfolding, suggest something more radical. Rumours point to a partnership with Jony Ive and SoftBank to develop a new kind of AI hardware. Not a phone. Not a watch. Something ambient. Possibly wearable. Almost certainly conversational.

It may not look like a device at all.

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A Tale of Two Paradigms

At the heart of the Apple vs. OpenAI hardware question lies a deeper strategic tension: integration versus reinvention.

• Apple’s play is about containment. By embedding generative AI into its familiar devices, it hopes to make intelligence feel seamless—and safe. The iPhone remains the centre of gravity. However Siri still has problems.

• OpenAI, on the other hand, seeks disruption. If their device ambitions bear fruit, we may see a form factor that escapes the rectangular prison of apps entirely. Think wearable, ambient, always-on. Less phone, more presence.

  
  

One path evolves the current human-device bond; the other redefines it.

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The Strategic Stakes

Why does this matter for business leaders and transformation thinkers?

Because the shape of tomorrow’s interface will shape customer expectations—and operational logic.

If Apple succeeds, the future will likely favour incremental transformation: systems that become gradually more assistive, assistants that become gradually more helpful. Enterprises can adapt slowly, integrating AI where safe.

If OpenAI succeeds, the shift could be more punctuated: a new class of device could reorder the channels through which people interact with brands, knowledge, and each other. Just as the iPhone redefined digital strategy in 2007, so too could an AI-native device reorder how we think about service, work, and value creation.

For organisations, this raises quiet but urgent questions:

• Are your systems optimised for interfaces that don’t yet exist?

• What happens when the primary way a customer interacts isn’t via tap or type, but via conversation?

• Is your knowledge architecture ready for agents—not just users?

  
  

Beyond the Device: It’s About Agency

Let’s not get lost in the hardware arms race. This isn’t about chips or chassis. It’s about a shift in agency.

The AI-native device—whether born in Cupertino or San Francisco—represents a movement from tool to teammate. From command to collaboration. From interface to intersubjectivity.

We are entering an era where hardware is no longer just a vessel, but a co-pilot.

Apple may offer a more elegant bridge. OpenAI may light the bolder fire. But the real question is not who wins the hardware war—it’s whether we are ready to meet the new form of intelligence these devices will invite into our daily lives.