iOS 27’s Shortcuts is AI at its best

There’s a reason why so many Apple enthusiasts love the Shortcuts app. Like Automator on the Mac, it’s one of the most powerful tools on your iPhone. With Shortcuts, you can automate simple tasks or even create complex workflows that link multiple apps and actions together—if you know how to use it.

The problem with Shortcuts is that it’s complicated, and most users have no idea how to use it. Even if you consider yourself an advanced user, there are so many options within Shortcuts that finding the one you need can take quite a while.

With iOS 27, Apple is finally building Shortcuts for everyone. With a complete revamp of the Shortcuts experience, Apple is using AI to make Shortcuts drop-dead simple to use without sacrificing any of its power.

Shortcuts have always been anything but short

Since acquiring the Workflow app in March 2017 and turning it into Shortcuts a few months later, Apple has spent years building an incredible automation platform. For those who use it, Shortcuts has become an incredible tool over the past 10 years and is one of my favorite tools on iOS.

The possibilities are endless. You can create a shortcut that automatically turns on Low Power Mode when your battery reaches a level other than 20 percent, or something much more complex that detects when you’ve arrived home to turn on the lights and play a specific playlist on your HomePod.

Here, for example, I have a shortcut that detects when my iPhone is plugged in to enable Always-on Display. When I unplug my phone, it instantly turns off the feature to save battery life. Others use Shortcuts to change app icons, system sounds, rename files, summarize meetings, and much more.

But the thing is, the Shortcuts app has always been a bit intimidating for the average user. If you had no idea where to start, using the app could feel like you need to understand programming. There are actions, variables, conditions, app integrations, triggers, and automation logic. Even relatively simple shortcuts can require digging through long lists of actions and hoping you selected the correct ones in the right order.

The app can do amazing things, but most users simply haven’t figured out how to access them. That’s why Apple’s new AI-powered Shortcuts experience in iOS 27 may end up being one of the most important Apple Intelligence features announced at WWDC 2026.

Shortcuts is now built entirely around Apple Intelligence

As part of iOS 27, the new Shortcuts app is built entirely around Apple Intelligence. Instead of having to search for actions and triggers, users can now describe automations in natural language and let Apple Intelligence assemble the workflow automatically.

For example, you can now ask Shortcuts to automatically open a specific app when you connect your iPad to the Magic Keyboard, turn on the porch lights when your food delivery is on its way, or even set your morning alarm based on your first calendar event the next day, all using natural language. There’s no need to navigate through complex controls anymore.

And even more importantly, you can continue refining your shortcuts conversationally. If something doesn’t work exactly the way you want, you can simply describe the adjustment instead of manually rebuilding the automation yourself. That changes everything and makes it a tool anyone can understand and master.

Apple is so confident about using AI in Shortcuts that the new interface for creating a shortcut starts by asking the user what they want to create, rather than showing all the available actions and an overwhelming series of menus. With the new Shortcuts, Apple Intelligence essentially becomes a translator between users and automations.

Of course, if you still want to manually create your own shortcut, that option is still available. But starting with a draft generated by Apple Intelligence is definitely more effortless than starting from scratch.

Apple

iOS 27 brings AI where it matters most

When it comes to Apple Intelligence features, some of them have always seemed a bit abstract. Sure, it’s always fun to watch demos of Genmoji and Image Playground, but these are features that most people will probably try once or twice and then forget they exist.

With iOS 27, Apple seems to be finally implementing AI where it matters most, and the new Shortcuts app is a great example.

Unlike many AI products, this feature doesn’t require users to completely change how they interact with their devices. People already describe tasks naturally in everyday language. Shortcuts simply turns those descriptions into functioning automations.

Honestly, this feels like one of the first Apple Intelligence features that could fundamentally change how average users interact with iOS. This also applies to the new Siri AI, which understands what the user wants, rather than forcing you to use specific language to talk to the assistant.

Apple isn’t just adding new AI features to iOS. It’s using Apple Intelligence to reduce the friction between users and more complex tasks. And if it works the way Apple claims, Shortcuts might finally stop being a niche tool and become something that many iPhone users will rely on every day.

iOS 27 will be released this fall. For now, only a developer beta is available, with a public beta set to be released next month.