As of September 14, iPadOS 27 is finally available to the masses, not just for people in Apple’s beta program. The lion’s share of improvements are actually under the hood — even older iPads may see some noticeable speed and interface upgrades. It’s an acknowledgment, perhaps, that the company’s ambitions have outstripped its ability to keep things running smoothly.
There are some important feature additions, however, most of them AI-enhanced. I’m going to explain what they are, why they matter, and when necessary, how to trigger them. I wish there was more to talk about in the non-AI category — it’s just obvious where Apple’s focus is this year.
Siri AI
A chatbot you’ll actually want to use
This is the headliner I mentioned. For over a decade, Apple let Siri languish to the point that what was once a cutting-edge voice assistant became something customers avoided. With iPadOS 27 (and parallel releases), the voice assistant is getting a badly-needed overhaul, based on the same generative AI models as Google Gemini, except with more privacy.
It’s not just about natural conversations, or being able to answer knowledge questions without being shunted to ChatGPT or a web link. It’s about deeper control of apps, as well as persistent memory. You might, for instance, ask Siri to “mail that photo I just took to Bob,” and have it automatically transfer an image via Mail to the right contact. And there’s now a dedicated Siri app, which will allow you to carry conversations between devices, and browse them when you’re done talking.
My only serious concerns are reliable accuracy — still a sore spot with chatbots — and reaction times. In early testing, Siri AI sometimes took a long time to produce results, well past the minute mark. That’s obviously not very helpful if you could accomplish the same tasks with a few taps or web searches. I’m crossing my fingers that Apple will keep performance in check without making us pay extra for the privilege.
There is another asterisk here: compatibility. An A17 Pro or M-series processor is needed, so even the 2025 entry-level iPad is unsupported. All Apple Intelligence features have the same requirement, in fact.
Visual Intelligence for iPad
Why wasn’t this available sooner?
One of the few Apple Intelligence features worth using before the 27 updates was Visual Intelligence. On an iPhone, the feature lets you ask questions about both screenshots and in-camera objects. The iPadOS 27 incarnation is limited to screenshots (at least for now), but don’t let that fool you. It can be extraordinarily useful if you’re trying to identify people, plants, or objects, or don’t understand a concept you need to know for work or school. All you need to do is tap the appropriate icon after taking a screenshot as usual (by pressing Sleep/Wake and a volume button simultaneously).
You can even do some shopping this way, but I doubt this will matter to most people. The built-in store selection tends to be limited, and if you need an AI to tell you what you’re looking at, you should pop open a web browser anyway to do more research. With PEVs, for instance, there’s a massive gulf between a Kingsong S22 and an F22.
AI editing in Photos
Ethics matter
Apple has long resisted the sort of AI editing you see in apps like Photoshop, which can render an image unrecognizable from what was shot in-camera, or synthesize something entirely from scratch. But the company seems to have to caved to pressure a little, so on top of Clean Up — an earlier option that let you delete people, animals, objects, and blemishes – there’s now Expand and Reframe. The first expands an image to a desired size and aspect ratio, using AI to guess at the missing parts. Reframe is even wilder, letting you reposition the apparent camera angle.
Be careful about using these features, above all because of ethics. These tools may not feel like a big deal — but the people you share with may not appreciate a partially faked image, and might question whether anything is authentic. Also, the results aren’t guaranteed to be realistic anyway — there may be odd patterns or missing objects. Use these tools only when you’re aiming for style over substance.
Voice-built automations in Shortcuts
The real star of the show?
The Shortcuts app can be an essential tool if you’re a power user, letting you build custom automations that trigger several actions on command, or under special conditions. The catch so far has been its complexity. Even I find it a little intimidating, and I’ve been covering Apple products since 2006. I’ve mostly stuck to modifying prefab templates.
iPadOS 27 fixes this, leveraging Siri AI to translate voice commands into automations, much like Gemini or Amazon Alexa+. The possibilities are genuinely exciting. A simple one might shuffle your driving music and share an ETA with your partner whenever CarPlay launches — but you might also have the app unlock your door, turn on the lights, adjust the temperature, turn on your TV, and even play NPR news on your HomePod the moment you enter a selected geofence. If you don’t have smart home gear, imagine automating entire workflows that adjust to key variables. This probably won’t work flawlessly all the time, but you can always tweak voice-created shortcuts the hard way.
