Welcome, tech enthusiasts and IT administrators. The new buzzword in the technology field is Artificial Intelligence. Apple Intelligence on iOS 18 is Apple’s take on Artificial Intelligence. So, today, let’s dive in and explore how you can Manage Apple Intelligence on iOS/iPadOS devices using Intune.
The Artificial Intelligence took a leap in development with Apple and Microsoft entering. Apple introduced Apple Intelligence at the World Wide Developers Conference in June 2024, along with iOS 18. This marked Apple’s entry into Artificial Intelligence. Apple introduced numerous AI features with iOS 18.
Apple Intelligence brings powerful AI features directly to Apple devices. These features are directly integrated into Apple’s Operating systems. Also, all AI requests are handled at the device level. Apple introduced various features, including Genmoji, Writing Tools, Image Playground, Siri, Visual Intelligence, Mail, ChatGPT integrations, and more.
Apple Intelligence is not supported by all iOS/iPadOS devices. The support starts with iPhone 15 Pro devices iPad mini, with A17, iPad Air M1, and later models. Even though it was announced with iOS 18, most of the features were available with iOS 18.1.
Table of Contents
Apple Intelligence Feature
As discussed, Apple introduced various features into iOS 18. These features are designed to improve user interactions and increase productivity. System requirements for using the new Apple Intelligence capabilities are an M-series Apple silicon chip or an A17 Pro and later. iOS 18.1 or iPadOS 18.1 or later. Let’s see below what the key features of Apple Intelligence below.
Writing Tools: Writing Tools allow users to refine their language by rewriting, proofreading, and summarising text virtually everywhere. This feature is integrated with various Apple apps, including Mail, Messages, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.
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Image Playground: The Image Playground allow users to generate images using text descriptions. It allows users to create images based on Themes, costumes, accessories and places and can even create images in the likeness of a family member or friend using photos from their photo library.
Genmoji: Users can create personalised emojis using Genmoji. It allows users to create fun and playful emojis using images from the photo library. Genmojis can be created using a text prompt as well.
Image Wand: Users with Image Wand in the tool palette can quickly create images in their notes using the written or visual context that is already captured within the note app. It also transforms a rough image into a better image by circling it.
Smart Notifications: Summarising and prioritising notifications to reduce distractions. Users can focus on what truly matters.
Siri: Apple improved contextual understanding for Siri. It introduced the ability to type to Siri instead of just asking Siri. It also integrated Siri with ChatGPT for an improved knowledge base. These users can ask Siri complex questions or draft text using ChatGPT.
These are a few features available with Apple Intelligence. These features are deeply integrated into the iOS ecosystem, aiming to provide intuitive and context-aware assistance. Microsoft Intune helps to manage these features using Configuration policies.
Why Manage Apple Intelligence
Now the question is whether we really need to manage the Apple Intelligence or not. First, we discuss the possible scenarios where an enterprise fears. Apple promised that all the processing of the happens on device level.
However, the introduction of powerful AI tools also makes organisations consider careful management to protect sensitive company data and maintain compliance. Organisations must ensure that proprietary information is not leaked or exposed, especially when leveraging integrations with third-party AI services. With MDM solutions, organisations can enable or disable features of Apple Intelligence.
How to Manage Apple Intelligence using Intune
In the above section, we have discussed a few Apple Intelligence features. Intune released its support to manage the Apple Intelligence with different releases. As of now, Intune supports managing all the Apple Intelligence features.
To restrict the Apple Intelligence features on the device, the device must be supervised and enrolled as part of Apple Business Management. We cannot control the features on BYOD or personal devices using MDM control (device restrictions). Now, let’s see how we can control the features using Intune below
- Log in to the Microsoft Intune Admin Centre
- Click Devices > Configuration > Create > New Policy
- Click on Settings Catalog
- Click On Create
Now, in the Basics page, provide a Name for the Policy. In our case, I have named the policy as “Apple Intelligence“. Provide a Description for the policy. This will help you why created the policy, and you can add the purpose of the policy to identify in future.
Click Next. Now, on the Configuration Settings page, click on Add Settings. Now you will see various categories of restrictions that can be managed using Intune. Most of the restrictions are available under Restrictions and Declarative Device Management.
Under Restrictions, you can find most of the AI features like Genmoji, Image Playground, Image Wand, and Apple Intelligence Report. Select all the features that you want to block. Once selected, click on Disabled, which will disable the features on the device.
Now under Declarative Device Management (DDM), you will have settings configured for the declarations used by Apple’s declarative device management feature. It is different from the old Device management features. We have Math Notes, Keyboard Suggestions, select the configurations and toggle to disable the features.
Now, under the Restrictions tab, you can manage which features to enable and disable. As we selected a few Apple Intelligence features, I’m disabling all the Apple Intelligence features under Restrictions. This will block Image Playground, Third third-party artificial Intelligence application like ChatGPT.
Now, click on Next to the Scope Tags page to add scope tags if you have any. Click Next to the Assignment page to add the Assignments. Click on Add groups and search for the user group to which you need to assign. Select the group and assign the policy.
Click on Next to Review + Create page, to review the policy, and if you would like to make any changes, you can edit the settings, and once you have confirmed the changes, click on Create. This will create the policy to block AI on the device.
The configuration is for devices that are enrolled with the Apple Business manager program, nothing but corporate devices. If you want to block the Apple Intelligence on personal devices, we need to create a MAM policy assign it to both Managed and non-managed devices.
User Experience
We have created and blocked a few AI features. Let’s see how this configuration will take effect on the device. I have enrolled a device through the Apple Business Manager enrollment method. I have downloaded the Image Playground application
Now, once the device successfully sync with the policies, if I try to open and use image playground application I got the above error message as it is not available at this moment. Similary, When I try to use Math Notes, got error message as this feature is controlled by a Profile. I tried to use ChatGPT, but the feature is greyed out.
Conclusion
Microsoft Intune provides the necessary granular control through its MDM and MAM capabilities, allowing IT administrators to configure Apple Intelligence features on supervised company-owned devices and manage organisational data within applications on BYOD devices.
Managing Apple Intelligence features is not just enabling or disabling the features, it is the strategic way of managing User experience with strict and stringent corporate security and compliance requirements. This can be achieved only by proactive planning and continuous adaptability to new features.
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Author
About Author – Narendra Kumar Malepati (Naren) has 13+ years of experience in IT, working on different MDM tools. Over the last seven years, Naren has been working on various features of Intune, including migration from different MDMs to Intune. Naren mainly focuses on Android, iOS, and macOS.