Apple has integrated artificial intelligence into its visual-scripting tool, Shortcuts, to make it far more user-friendly in iOS 27. Originally designed mainly for power users looking to automate repetitive tasks, build workflows, or link actions across multiple apps, the revamped Shortcuts app now lets users simply type a prompt describing what they want to accomplish. This new capability is driven by Apple Intelligence, which interprets natural language descriptions and automatically constructs the necessary steps.

"While super powerful, the process of creating these shortcuts can feel, well, complicated," acknowledged Celcia Dantas, Senior Manager of Home Software Product Marketing, during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday. This AI upgrade makes the Shortcuts app much more accessible and opens up its potential for non-technical users, who no longer need to worry about selecting the correct app actions or variables.

Dantas illustrated the feature with a practical example: users could design a shortcut that automatically notifies their partner when they leave work, including an estimated time of arrival at home. Instead of manually figuring out how to build such automation, users can simply type their request, and Shortcuts will assemble the necessary system and app actions. In this case, it would create an automation that triggers when the user leaves work—accessing a stored address—then calculates the ETA using Apple Maps, and sends the alert via Messages.

Users can also modify their shortcuts by describing changes in plain language. For instance, in the "leaving work" example, the user could later edit it to start playing a favorite podcast as well. The updated Shortcuts app will be available with iOS 27, rolling out later this fall.