Apple Intelligence won’t roll out in September when the iPhone arrives; it will probably begin launching publicly in October. And even then, customers will only see a small piece of the vision that Apple presented when it unveiled the capabilities in June at its Worldwide Developers Conference.

After testing the first beta version of Apple Intelligence myself, I can tell you that the features don’t yet live up to the excitement. In their current state, they’re a far cry from the game-changing technology that fans and investors hope Apple Intelligence will become… Now, it’s true that this is just the first beta release and the company will undoubtedly improve it over the next few months. But I suspect that we’re seeing a fairly good picture of what Apple Intelligence will look like when it debuts around October…

Some key Apple Intelligence features aren’t in the initial beta. That includes a Genmoji tool that lets you creating your own emoji with AI (you can imagine a lot of Apple’s advertising focusing on this feature). There will also be a new Image Playground app for creating AI photos and the ability for the system to automatically prioritize missed notifications. And we’ll see new Gmail-like categorization in the Mail app and integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. These latter capabilities will likely come in November or December.

Users will have to wait until 2025 to see the fully revamped Siri. The new interface that’s coming this year is mostly just about the look and feel. What’s coming next year is an under-the-hood revamp based on upgraded artificial intelligence models.

But even when the full scope of Apple Intelligence is available, the company will still be playing catch-up… Apple’s effort still feels like a response to the AI revolution being advanced by Google, OpenAI, Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. To be more of a leader, Apple is going to have to start releasing more meaningful features — and fast.