Apple may plug-and-play Perplexity to salve its lagging AI efforts

Apple’s recent WWDC 2025 event, earlier this month, which barely touched upon artificial intelligence, left everyone with more questions than answers in terms of the iPhone maker's so-called 'Apple Intelligence' AI business.

Now, maybe, the latest media reporting suggests some reason for the notable AI void at the event.

It could be that Apple is going to plug and play, with reports claiming Apple has held behind closed doors talks to buy Perplexity AI, which, alongside ChatGPT-owner OpenAI, seeks to take on Google in search-based AI.

Perplexity, specialising in search that leverages 'large language model' (LLM) AIs to deliver news and information discovery, could be bought and embedded into Apple's iOS operating system, technology and business media reported this weekend.

If such an arrangement comes to pass, it would give Apple its debut native AI-first experience (as currently, it plugs in Google services).

The apparent slow progress with Apple's AI offering is quite curious, given that it previously led the personal assistant field with Siri. Currently, however, Apple is lagging behind Google and Meta, which in turn lag OpenAI in the intelligence stakes.

While no formal bids have been reported thus far, and latest press reports say the rumoured talks between Apple and Perplexity remain confidential.