Apple’s Most Underappreciated App Has Significantly Improved

As sentences go, “Apple Intelligence now works in Apple Shortcuts” doesn’t exactly spark a lot of excitement. That’s unfortunate, as this change—one of the more underappreciated features in macOS 26—opens up a world of possibilities with Apple’s built-in AI for creating shortcuts. I understand: Apple Intelligence positions AI as a feature rather than a standalone product, and features often seem less thrilling than full-fledged products. Apple Shortcuts, which enables you to build a single automation to perform multiple tasks, is easily overlooked. However, investing some effort into automating frequently performed tasks can save you a significant amount of time.

For instance, I’ve set up my daily journal using Shortcuts, generating a new entry that incorporates elements like the weather, a quote, and an overall structure. I rely on this shortcut nearly every day, and it truly enhances my routine.

Integrating a large language model into Shortcuts makes it much simpler to create automations that streamline your life. Here’s how it works:

How This Works
Navigate to Apple Shortcuts, create a new shortcut, and you’ll notice “Apple Intelligence” listed among the supported applications. There are several Actions related to text, enabling you to proofread, summarize, and compile lists from text. You also have the option to generate an image, if desired.

In my opinion, the standout Action is “Use Model,” largely due to its versatility. This allows you to select from three models—the completely offline and private model hosted on your device, an Apple server using the same models, or even ChatGPT (no subscription or API key required).

You can input any prompt you want, enabling you to manipulate text in various beneficial ways. For example, I wanted an efficient method to grab details from an event invitation sent via text message or email and add it to my calendar. I created a new shortcut that retrieves the current text from the clipboard. I included several Use Model steps that process the original text and produce outputs like an event title, start time, and location. Finally, I configured the shortcut to create an event using these details.