WWDC: How Apple Watch could deliver big improvements in a small package
Stop to think about it and as operating systems and search engines assimilate one another for an AI Age, hardware design becomes both more and less important.
It’s more important because we all want to use hardware that looks nice and we enjoy using, but it’s less important because so many of the features of these devices are becoming AI ins some way, agentic, remote, or on-device.
What you have now
Now think about Apple Watch. Your wristband holds a fantastic little device for things like payments, identity, fitness and health tracking, messaging and more.
Packed with sensors, it works cheerfully with the processor inside your iPhone to do all those things and more. Some tasks you don’t need your smartphone for, but for most of them you do, because for the most complex tasks Apple Watch is for iPhone.
What some are expecting
Speculation currently claims we shouldn’t anticipate too many Apple Watch improvements at WWDC 2026, but I think this may miss the point.
Think about what the primary focus of this year’s developer event is going to be, which is artificial intelligence – or the next step in the mingling of OS and search.
The event is likely to feature new Apple Intelligence domains, the introduction of an App Store for AI of some kind, a new contextual Siri, and more. Apple will be hoping to change public perception of its approach to AI from one of being behind in the race to a better recognition that is offers the best platforms on which to run the best AI services.
Put it all together to get – what?
The thing is an Apple Watch is also a platform, and as the Siri AI enhancements everyone anticipated will be chatbot-like, then it seems reasonable to expect you’ll be able to use spoken interactions on your watch to get stuff done.
Your iPhone may be in our pocket, but in theory it seems possible to imagine asking your Apple Watch to do complex tasks, running software agents or multi-stop Shortcuts on your iPhone in response to spoken word commands made on your watch.
It reasonably doesn’t need to stop there, with iCloud identity authorisation making me wonder if you’ll be able to use your Apple Watch to get complex tasks done on your Mac at home, thanks to the internet and your iPhone. None of these speculations seem particularly far-fetched, given the way Apple’s many products interact across the Apple ecosystem.
Agentic for the rest of us
So, while there may not be too many surprises in terms of Apple Watch hardware to come at WWDC 2026, the question I have ahead of this year’s show is: To what degree will Apple’s new AI features interoperate across all its systems, including Apple Watch? Is it possible Apple will effectively untether software from hardware using AI to give all the devices in the Apple ecosystem access to features, tools, and services they cannot physically reach on their own? The answer may yet end up being the biggest outcome for Apple Watch at WWDC, and potentially the biggest thing yet for wearables as a platform.
You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky, LinkedIn, and Mastodon.
