Apple adds AI assistant to Pages, Keynote, and Numbers

This feature, called "Intelligent Assistant," is powered by AI models from Apple and OpenAI. It is not limited to answering questions; it can also perform tasks based on the document or spreadsheet the user is currently editing, helping users directly complete content creation and modification.

In Pages, the Intelligent Assistant can draft articles, reorganize paragraphs, adjust writing tone, and edit and polish existing content according to user requests. Users can also ask it to write specific sections, generate images or graphic elements, or look up the latest information on a topic and then integrate the relevant content into the document.

For users unfamiliar with Pages' advanced features, the assistant can also provide operational guidance, explain how to use specific tools, and offer improvement suggestions based on the current document. Compared with simply asking AI in a separate chat window, working directly within the document environment is expected to reduce copying and pasting and repeatedly switching between apps.

Keynote's Intelligent Assistant is mainly aimed at presentation creation. Users can ask the AI to build presentation content based on a topic, generate slides, write speaker notes, add animations, and adjust and refine existing pages. The assistant can also generate images and graphic elements to help users more quickly establish the visual structure of a presentation.

This feature may be especially useful for users who frequently need to create business reports, teaching materials, and project briefings. Traditional presentation creation not only requires organizing information but also involves page layout, visual design, and narrative structure. The AI assistant attempts to integrate these steps into the same workflow, allowing users to express their goals through text descriptions and then have the software help complete the specific operations.

In Numbers, the Intelligent Assistant can identify data patterns based on spreadsheet content, generate complex formulas, create custom tables, and recommend suitable data visualization charts. Users can describe calculation needs in natural language without having to rely entirely on familiarity with spreadsheet functions.

For example, users can ask the software to analyze trends in a set of data, create summary tables, or generate formulas that perform specific calculations. For users who need to process large amounts of data but do not have professional data analysis skills, such features are expected to lower the barrier to use. However, AI-generated formulas and analysis results still need to be checked, especially in scenarios with high accuracy requirements such as financial calculations and business decisions.

This update also includes an important change: Apple has begun allowing third-party AI agents to connect to its office apps. Pages, Keynote, and Numbers support the Model Context Protocol (MCP) in macOS 27 and later versions, enabling eligible third-party AI agents to interact with these apps.

MCP is an open protocol used to connect AI models with external tools, data sources, and applications. It allows AI to go beyond generating text and, with authorization, access corresponding tools and execute more specific workflows. For office software, this means that in the future users may operate documents, presentations, and spreadsheets through different AI assistants without having to rely entirely on Apple's built-in Intelligent Assistant.

The Intelligent Assistant is currently available in beta for devices that support Apple Intelligence and requires iOS 27, iPadOS 27, or macOS 27 and later versions. The availability of related features is also subject to language and subscription conditions, and at this stage not all users can directly use the full functionality.

In addition to office software, Apple has also brought AI upgrades to other creative apps. Pixelmator Pro adds a "Generate Fill" feature, allowing users to modify specific areas of an image through text descriptions. The system attempts to match the lighting, perspective, and texture of the surrounding environment so that the modified content blends more naturally into the original image.

This feature is expected to simplify operations that previously required complex selections, layers, and retouching tools. Users can describe the content they want to add, remove, or change, and then the AI generates the corresponding result. However, the generated effect still depends on the image content, the prompt, and the model's understanding of the scene.

Logic Pro for Mac and iPad will also receive interface adjustments adopting the Liquid Glass visual style, along with an AI assistant. Apple says users can create the basic setup for a vocal recording track with a single prompt, and can also have the assistant help modify existing music projects. The Mac version of Logic Pro will also have a redesigned browser and use on-device AI to automatically analyze, classify, and tag imported sound materials.

For music producers, organizing materials often takes a lot of time. Automatically identifying sound types and adding tags is expected to help users find suitable sound effects and recording clips more quickly, while AI-assisted track setup may reduce the operational complexity of some production workflows.

Apple also plans to update the Final Cut Pro video editing software, integrating templates, graphics, titles, and transition effects provided by MotionVFX directly into the app. Final Cut Pro will also have a built-in Content Hub, providing a library of materials for creators, including stock video, photos, and backgrounds.

Apple said the above creative app updates will be provided free of charge to existing Creator Studio subscribers in November.

Overall, Apple is trying to shift artificial intelligence from a separate chat interface to an embedded productivity tool. Whether it is revising articles, creating presentations, analyzing spreadsheets, or organizing music materials, AI is beginning to participate directly in the work users are doing, rather than merely providing text suggestions.

However, whether AI assistants can truly improve work efficiency still depends on the accuracy of generated content, users' ability to control the results, and the degree of collaboration between different apps. Especially in complex documents, financial data, and professional creative tasks, artificial intelligence may still produce errors or unexpected results, and users still need to check and adjust.

For Apple, this round of updates is not only about adding new features to existing software, but also about responding to the trend of competitors such as Microsoft and Google continuously integrating AI into office products. As natural language operations and third-party AI agents gradually enter productivity software, the focus of competition in future office applications may shift from simply providing editing tools to whether they can understand user intent and help complete entire tasks.