• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, Yesterday

Apple’s annual WWDC developer event opened with its usual dazzle — a noisy spoof of its Brad Pitt–backed racing film and a showy slate of iOS, WatchOS, and iPadOS upgrades. But for all the spectacle (including a piano man belting out app reviews), the event lacked the one thing Apple most needs to deliver: a clear, competitive AI strategy.

In many ways, the event is one of the most significant B2B events in the tech industry, offering vital intel to millions of app developers worldwide. But in a larger sense, it’s become Apple’s annual showcase for what’s next and the corporate brand positioning that perpetually makes it the world’s most valuable brand. But this year? There are plenty of soft spots.

Wedbush Securities’ analyst pronounced it a “yawner.” In his note on the event, analyst Daniel Ives wrote that while the event laid out the vision for developers, it  “was void of any major Apple Intelligence progress as Cupertino is playing it safe and close to the vest after the missteps last year.”

While that strategy makes sense, he noted Apple may be forced to make substantial AI acquisitions to keep up. “We have a high level of confidence Apple can get this right, but they have a tight window to figure this out, and that will be the focus of investors the next year.”

Apple also announced innovations like live translation capabilities, group chat upgrades and plenty of new features in its software ecosystem.

“In any other year, the multitude of software upgrades, tweaks and new services might be enough to excite shareholders and the company’s devoted user base, which is responsible for more than 2.3 billion active devices around the world,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “But it was far from the AI comeback investors were hoping for.”

The software updates — including Liquid Glass, billed as “the broadest design update ever” — couldn’t make up for the absence of expected Siri improvements. As for that long-delayed Siri reboot?  It’s still MIA.  “This work needed more time to reach our high-quality bar, and we look forward to sharing more about it in the coming year,” said Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, at the event.

To many observers, Apple focused “mostly on incremental advances and cosmetic changes in its technology,” reports AP. And while the company highlighted plans for more AI tools to simplify people’s lives and offered a glimpse at software redesign, “Apple executives refrained from issuing bold promises of breakthroughs that punctuated recent conferences.”

At UBS, analyst David Vogt called the day’s big reveals “more evolutionary than revolutionary,” noting many of the AI features announced were incremental “and already available through competitor applications.”

The company’s stock price fell slightly following the event.

One element of the event, however, did not disappoint: Apple closed the presentation with a hilarious and soulful rendition, sung by Allen Stone, performing a dramatic musical reading of app reviews. Attendees gave it, well, two thumbs and ten toes up.

Engadget thought so, too: “It was the most legitimately delightful thing in the whole show.”