Apple is poised to tap into a "very significant" monetization opportunity in the coming years by enhancing its artificial intelligence-driven Siri virtual voice assistant across various applications, as highlighted by BofA Securities. This forecast indicates a potential revenue stream that could drastically change the financial landscape for the tech giant. Analyst Wamsi Mohan emphasized that among the numerous avenues for monetization available to Apple through its newly introduced Apple Intelligence AI technology, a more profound integration of Siri with third-party apps stands out as the "most overlooked" opportunity.
As Mohan states, this integration could evolve into a substantial revenue generator over time. According to his projections, a deep integration of Siri into applications could yield an impressive $3 billion in revenue by 2026, with staggering growth anticipated to reach around $50 billion by 2036. Mohan also mentioned the potential impact on Apple's stock, estimating that this new revenue stream might add up to $15 per share.
While acknowledging some potential cannibalization of existing revenue channels, he reiterated that the majority of these profits would likely be incremental, representing a fresh modality of advertising-driven monetization for Apple. Furthermore, with the implementation of Apple Intelligence, Siri is expected to evolve significantly, capable of suggesting the most relevant applications to users and facilitating an environment where apps vie for consumer attention.
"For Apple, we believe the auction-based opportunity will not genuinely take effect until the end of 2026. By then, we expect Siri will be refined enough to perform tasks demanded by users, alongside a sufficient user base within Apple Intelligence to initiate monetization," Mohan elaborated. As an indication of the type of tasks Siri might handle, the initial functionalities are likely to focus on food ordering, travel arrangements, and business tasks.
This could result in Siri managing orders from renowned services like Uber Technologies and DoorDash, facilitating user interactions with these platforms seamlessly. Currently, while Siri has basic capabilities to perform tasks, the incorporation of AI could allow for a more complex execution of multi-step functions, enhancing the user experience dramatically. BofA Securities reaffirmed its 'buy' rating for Apple stocks, maintaining a price target of $256.
Presently, Apple's stock is trading at $228.09, reflecting a change of +0.57, or a percentage increase of +0.25. Such positive projections underscore the transformative potential of AI technology in shaping the future of personal assistant functionalities and the broader implications for Apple's financial performance..