Apple’s most overlooked app is now a lot better

As sentences go, “Apple Intelligence now works in Apple Shortcuts” is not likely to inspire many people to click the link. And that’s too bad: this change is one of the most overlooked New features in macOS 26means you can use AI is on board at Apple To do all sorts of things while designing shortcuts.

Look, I get it: Apple Intelligence makes AI is a feature, not a productand the features are generally less interesting to read about than full products. Apple Shortcuts — which lets you create one simple automation to perform multiple tasks — is one of those features that’s easy to overlook. But it can save you a lot of time, if you’re willing to put in a little effort to automate the tasks you do often.

I, for example, Prepare my diary Using shortcuts, you can create a new journal entry that captures things like weather, quote, and general structure. I use this shortcut almost every day, and it makes my life better.

Adding a large language model to Shortcuts means it’s easier to create automations that can simplify your life. Here’s how:

How does this work

Head to Apple Shortcuts, create a new shortcut, and you’ll see “Apple Intelligence” as one of the supported apps listed. There are some text-related actions, allowing you to do things like proofreading, summarizing, and creating a list of text. You also get the ability to create an image, if you want.

For my money, the most useful action offered is ‘Use Form’, mostly because of how open it is. With this, you can choose between three models – the private, completely offline one running on your device, a server provided by Apple using the same models, or even ChatGPT (no signup or API key required).

You can type any prompt you want, allowing you to manipulate text in all kinds of useful ways. For example, I wanted to be able to quickly copy the details of an event invitation from a text message or email, and then add it to my calendar. I’ve created a new shortcut that captures the current text from the clipboard. I’ve added a set of usage model steps that use the original text and output things like the event title, event start time, and location. Then I set the shortcut to create an event using these details.