The Apple Watch may get a new life as a camera-equipped AI device

As AI continues to dominate Apple’s strategic roadmap, a new report indicates the company wants to reimagine the Apple Watch as a camera-equipped AI assistant.

The iPhone and Mac ranges have already gained AI features, thanks to the (gradual and frequently delayed) rollout of Apple Intelligence. But these are both products that the owner has to actively bring into use: sitting at a desk, opening a lid, and taking a handset out of a pocket. Whereas futurists believe AI will develop and thrive as a zero-friction technology that’s with us all of the time.

To an extent this model fits with the concept of the smart speaker, since this is just there; all you need to do is talk to it. But such devices are not portable, which is why we’ve seen the development of the AI wearable, a dedicated device that is continuously accessible to answer questions and provide information on the world around the user. The two most famous examples so far have been the Humane AI and the Rabbit r1, but neither have been successful. (The YouTuber Marques Brownlee called the former “the worst product I’ve ever reviewed” and the latter “barely reviewable.”) There remains a gap in the market.

Apple, according to the latest installment of Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, hopes to fill this vacuum with a future iteration of the Apple Watch. This is an idea I’ve discussed before, based on the fact that the Apple Watch already has the frictionless omnipresence that AI assistants need, and by contrast with standalone devices like the Humane AI is plugged into a wider ecosystem of messages, calendar entries, and so on.

But there are two things preventing the Watch from doing the job convincingly at this point: it doesn’t have a camera, which is essential for a lot of visual and geographically contextual queries, and it isn’t in line to get the Apple Intelligence-based smarter Siri.

The latter remains a troubling head-scratcher, but we’d hope that Siri will get sorted eventually (now that Apple is taking the problem seriously) and that Apple Intelligence will make its way to watchOS within a year or two. And the camera issue is in hand, according to Gurman’s sources: “The company is working on new versions of the Apple Watch that include cameras,” he writes. “As with the future AirPods, this would help the device see the outside world and use AI to deliver relevant information.”

Gurman claims Apple is working on two different approaches to this: a camera under the display for the standard watches, and a camera lens “sitting on the side of the watch near the crown and button” for the Ultra models. The second design sounds easier for the user, who won’t need to bend their wrist to point the camera at relevant objects but is more suitable for a bulkier chassis.

The cameras will be there for AI purposes only, so don’t expect to be able to use them to capture sharp selfies or have FaceTime conversations; those things may follow but are not the point. For that matter, don’t expect any of this to happen this year. Gurman says the development is still multiple generations away from launch.