For years, Apple has faced criticism as one of the biggest laggards in the AI race. Skeptics have argued that the company’s lack of a clear AI strategy has cost it its competitive edge, while Wall Street analysts have worried that this gap could eventually hurt iPhone sales. Now, Apple has unveiled what it’s calling its most significant AI launch yet: Siri AI. This update embeds new automated capabilities—powered by a partnership with Google Gemini—directly into the core of its software. Is this enough to silence those who say Apple is “losing” the AI race? Honestly, nobody really knows. But that question might be the wrong one to ask. A better question might be: Will Apple customers actually use these features, and if they do, will it benefit Apple’s business?

Before we tackle that, it’s worth noting that Monday’s announcements included a pointed remark from Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering. “Some appear to be racing forward, seemingly pursuing AI for the sake of AI, without clear regard for the people—all of us—that it’s ultimately meant to serve,” Federighi said during his presentation. “At Apple, our mission has always been to turn the potential of advanced technology into helpful and intuitive products for everyone.”

This not-so-subtle defiance seems like both a response to Apple’s “behind-on-AI” criticism and an effort to acknowledge the deeply mixed—and, according to some polls, increasingly negative—feelings many consumers have about the AI industry. It’s also a clever message at a time when Americans are worried that AI will take their jobs and erode their minds. Apple is positioning itself as the AI company that’s truly on your side. Based on Monday’s demos, that positioning has some real substance behind it.

Siri can now uncover information buried deep in your inbox or text history, surface helpful details, and offer useful suggestions based on that data. It uses what Apple calls “onscreen awareness” to provide context about what you’re looking at. And, with Gemini, it can instantly pull up-to-date information from the web and deliver it directly to your device. Siri is also designed to work seamlessly across Apple devices, offering users greater flexibility. Like other AI chatbots, it stores chat histories so you can revisit past conversations.

By embedding AI capabilities into its disembodied, ethereal assistant, Apple also has the potential to erode the advantages of competitors whose apps can only reach users through its own App Store. For those competitors, having Apple’s AI integrated at the operating system level poses a meaningful threat to their distribution advantage. The key word here is “potential,” since this version of Siri won’t be available to consumers until later this year, as a beta. A final verdict will have to wait, but what’s already clear is that Apple is doing its best to win over its audience—whether they ultimately embrace it or not.

Apple is, of course, a hardware company, and these updates are designed to make that hardware incrementally more user-friendly and convenient, keeping users glued to their devices a little longer. The contrast with its competitors is instructive and may be the most important signal in Monday’s announcements for anyone watching where the AI industry is headed. Take OpenAI, which, despite shipping updates at a relentless pace, has struggled to define its target audience, oscillating between consumers and enterprises. Or Meta, which is pouring massive sums into AI without a clear explanation of how it connects to the company’s core advertising business. Apple’s more measured approach is starting to look optimal by comparison—and more financially sound.

For the most part, Apple hasn’t needed a blockbuster AI strategy. It posted record iPhone sales last quarter. And as questions mount over AI’s profitability and real-world utility, Apple is spending significantly less than its competitors—roughly $14 billion in capital expenditures planned this year, compared to a cumulative $900 billion being committed by other tech giants—while still generating huge revenue. That revenue has come from the AI industry itself, through taxes on AI companies that use its App Store to distribute their apps. In short, Apple is spending less, making more, and has now launched a suite of AI features that—for many iPhone users—will feel indistinguishable from the other AI applications already available through the App Store. If that doesn’t exactly count as “winning the AI race,” it may be the smartest way to run it.