Apple Shipped an AI Assistant Nobody Can Actually Use Yet
Apple Shipped an AI Assistant Nobody Can Actually Use Yet By Daniel Rao | October 24, 2026 Apple has finally built the AI assistant for its office apps that Google Workspace users have had for ages — and then, in the space of a single afternoon, it managed to un-launch it. Version 15.4.1 of Pages, Keynote and Numbers arrived on Thursday, October 22, 2026, carrying a brand-new beta feature called Intelligent Assistant. Within hours the three apps had vanished from the App Store entirely. When they came back, the version number had moved on, the assistant had not switched on for anyone, and Apple had said nothing at all. This is not a launch. It is a leak wearing a launch's clothes — and it is the clearest sign yet that Apple knows its productivity AI is behind, and is in too much of a hurry to admit it gracefully. We checked the same version trail across MacRumors, Macworld, 9to5Mac and Cult of Mac before writing this, because no single account of Thursday agrees with the others on ...