Apple Could Eventually Build Its Own Agentic AI to Rival OpenClaw

Apple is likely to develop an agentic AI system capable of operating its devices on a user's behalf, putting it in direct competition with tools like OpenClaw, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Writing in his Power On newsletter, Gurman said he expects Apple to eventually build software that can fully run iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps for the user rather than simply responding to one-off requests.

The forecast follows remarks made by senior Apple executives in the days after the WWDC keynote.

What an agentic system would do

Agentic AI differs from the assistant model most people are used to. Instead of answering a single question and stopping, an agent works continuously, taking in information, making decisions, and carrying out multi step actions on its own.

That is the category OpenClaw occupies, along with similar offerings from Google and Anthropic. A system of that kind could, in theory, navigate apps, complete tasks, and chain actions together without the user directing each step.

Apple has not announced anything of the sort. The rumored capability would be a substantial leap beyond what the company showed last week.

What Apple has actually said

The renewed speculation traces back to comments from Mike Rockwell, who leads Siri engineering at Apple. Rockwell suggested the assistant could grow past its current limits, describing the technology underneath the new Siri as a modern architecture designed to be extended.

He drew a clear line between today's assistant and a true agent. An agent, he explained, runs on a loop of incoming information, decisions, and actions, whereas Siri at present is still built around individual requests. He pointed to the rebuilt foundation as something that makes future expansion realistic.

Craig Federighi, Apple's software engineering chief, addressed the broader field as well. He characterized the agentic space as experimental and said the priority for Apple is finding the right experience for users, while not ruling out the company taking part down the line.

Where Siri stands now

The version of Siri arriving with Apple's next software releases has been rebuilt on a large language model foundation, but it remains a request based assistant. It is not the autonomous, computer operating agent that Gurman is describing as a longer term possibility.

Apple has not commented on any plans to build a dedicated competitor to OpenClaw, and it is not yet clear when, or whether, such a system would arrive.