Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8, 2026, that its Shortcuts app will gain an AI-driven feature in iOS 27 that allows users to build automations by describing what they want in plain language, rather than manually configuring steps and actions.
The updated Shortcuts app is powered by Apple Intelligence, which interprets natural language prompts and assembles the required workflow steps automatically. Previously, the app was aimed primarily at power users comfortable building multi-step automations across apps and system functions — a process the company itself acknowledged could feel complicated.
“While super powerful, the process of creating these shortcuts can feel, well, complicated,” said Cecilia Dantas, senior manager of Home Software Product Marketing, during the WWDC keynote.
Apple demonstrated the feature with a practical example: a user could type a request to be automatically notified when leaving work, with an estimated arrival time sent to their partner. Shortcuts would then build the automation — pulling a stored address, calculating an ETA via Apple Maps, and sending the alert through Messages — without the user needing to locate or configure individual app actions or variables manually.
Users can also modify existing shortcuts through natural language. In the same example, a user could later describe an edit to also start playing a podcast when the automation triggers.
The change could expand access to Shortcuts for non-technical users who previously found the app’s manual workflow-building process too involved. The updated app is scheduled to roll out with iOS 27 later in fall 2026.
Source: TechCrunch