• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, May 28, 2024

Apple’s forthcoming iOS 18 will force advertisers and marketers to know and understand their existing and potential customers extremely well. 

Whether or not a brand understands its customers can mean the difference between profit or loss. And it’s becoming even more important as the use of technology becomes more complex and increases. 

An AI-privacy feature called Web Eraser, expected to launch in iOS 18 and macOS 15, is said to allow users to remove portions of web pages such as ads or other content they don’t want to see.

“AI in ad blocking is a nascent area and some of the most significant challenges lie in accurately identifying ad elements and creating filtering rules without breaking the functionality of the web page," according to AdGuard. “Relying solely on AI for ad blocking isn't trustworthy at the moment, [but] using AI to spot bugs in filters is a promising approach and could greatly aid filter developers" when the technology is ready.

A report suggests advanced content-blocking features enabled by Web Eraser also include AI-powered Intelligent Search, which would explain why we have seen reports of Apple and OpenAI in discussions. 

Intelligent Search is not automatically enabled in test builds of Safari 18, according to the report, and requires manual activation from the page controls menu. 

Once enabled, the tool leverages Apple's on-device technology -- specifically the Ajax language-learning model -- to identify topics and key phrases within a webpage for which to base the summarization, according to the report.

Bloomberg Chief Correspondent Mark Gurman believes that at Apple’s developers conference in June, the company will unveil a different approach to AI, focusing on tools that consumers can use in daily activities. The idea is to appeal to a user’s practical side.

At the heart of the new strategy is Project Greymatter, a set of AI tools the company will integrate into core apps including Safari, Photos and Notes, as well as operating system features such as enhanced notifications, Gurman wrote.

The AI features also are expected to determine "whether a task should be handled on the device or via the cloud. Most of the on-device features will be supported by iPhone, iPad and Mac chips released in the last year or so,” he wrote.

How well do you know your potential and existing customers?

Acxiom released a survey that outlines four pillars to help brands better get to know their existing and potential customers.

• Strategy and Mindset: Investigates whether an organization has a clear vision and plan for customer intelligence
• Data Health: Determines how accurate and reliable customer data is
• Analytics and Enablement: Assesses the sophistication of the analytics used to drive insights and the degree to which those insights are then translated into actions across the business
• Operations and Support: Determines whether organizations have the infrastructure and operational setup for market-leading customer intelligence