Your iPhone has a powerful built-in app called Shortcuts that lets you automate sequences of actions. While true Artificial Intelligence autonomously controlling your phone is still largely in the realm of science fiction, you can use Shortcuts to create automations that incorporate AI as a step in their workflow. This lets you automate tasks where AI processes information or generates text for you.
Think of it not as AI running your phone, but as using AI capabilities within your own automated workflows. I’ve used this to make tasks like processing text faster. It’s a great way to make your iPhone do more smart work automatically.
What Does “Using AI to Automate Tasks” Mean on iPhone?
On your iPhone, using AI in automation typically means building a sequence of steps in the Shortcuts app where one of the steps involves an AI capability. This could be:
- Sending text to an AI model (via a dedicated app’s action or an API) to get a summary, translation, analysis, or generated text.
- Using AI features integrated into certain apps that are exposed as Shortcuts actions.
The automation then uses the AI’s output in a subsequent step (like saving the summary, sending the generated text, or logging the analysis result).
Prerequisites
- An iPhone running a recent version of iOS (Shortcuts automation features have improved over versions).
- The Shortcuts app installed (it’s a built-in Apple app).
- Access to an AI service or app that provides an AI capability you want to use:
- This might be a specific app you install from the App Store that offers Shortcuts actions (e.g., a text processing app with summarization).
- This might involve using an AI API (like OpenAI’s or potentially others). This is more advanced and requires signing up for the API service, getting an API key (which usually costs money based on usage), and potentially knowing how to structure web requests in Shortcuts.
For a beginner how-to, the easiest way to incorporate AI is by using Shortcuts actions provided by specific apps that already integrate AI features. If those aren’t available for your task, using web requests to APIs is the alternative but requires more technical setup outside of Shortcuts itself.
Let’s focus on building a Shortcut that includes an AI action, and then briefly touch on how to trigger it with an Automation. Creating the Shortcut first makes it easier to test the AI step.
How to Create a Shortcut Using AI (Step-by-Step Example: Summarize Text)
We’ll create a Shortcut that takes text input (e.g., copied text) and sends it to an AI service or app action to get a summary, then displays the summary.
- Open the Shortcuts App: Find and tap the ‘Shortcuts’ app icon.
- Go to the ‘Shortcuts’ Tab: Tap the ‘Shortcuts’ tab (it looks like puzzle pieces) at the bottom left.
- Create a New Shortcut: Tap the ‘+’ icon in the top right corner.
- Name Your Shortcut: Tap the ‘^’ icon at the top to expand details. Tap ‘Rename’ and give your shortcut a descriptive name, like “AI Summarize Text”. Tap ‘Done’.
- Add an Input Action: You need to get the text you want to summarize into the shortcut.
- Tap ‘Add Action‘.
- In the search bar, type “clipboard“.
- Tap ‘Get Clipboard’. This action will get the text currently copied to your iPhone’s clipboard.
- Add the AI Action (This depends on available AI actions): This is where you add the step that uses AI. This step can vary greatly depending on what apps you have installed that provide AI actions or if you’re using an API.
- Tap ‘Add Action‘.
- In the search bar, try searching for terms like “Summarize”, “Analyze Text”, or the name of an AI-powered app you use (e.g., “Bear”, “Notes”, if they have text processing actions that might use AI).
- If you find a suitable action like “Summarize Text” provided by an app or built-in:
- Tap that action to add it.
- Shortcuts is usually smart enough to automatically connect the output of the previous step (the clipboard text) to the input of this summarization action. Check that the action clearly shows it’s receiving input.
- If you can’t find a simple built-in or app action for your specific AI task (like using a specific API like ChatGPT or Gemini):
- This requires more advanced steps, typically using ‘Get Contents of URL’.
- You would use this action to send a web request to the AI API endpoint. This requires knowing the API’s URL, how to format the data to send (often JSON), and how to include your API key for authentication (usually in the request headers). This is technical and specific to each API. For a beginner, finding an app with a simpler action (first method) is usually easier than setting up API calls directly in Shortcuts.
- For this example, let’s assume you found a simple “Summarize Text” action (either built-in or from an app). Add that action and ensure it’s set up to take the clipboard text as input.
- Add Subsequent Actions (Display the Result): Now that the AI action has produced the summary, you need to see it.
- Tap ‘Add Action’.
- Search for “Show Result”.
- Tap ‘Show Result’.
- Shortcuts should automatically connect the output of the summarization action to the input of the Show Result action. This will display the summarized text in a pop-up when the shortcut runs.
- Test the Shortcut:
- First, copy some text to your iPhone’s clipboard (e.g., a paragraph from a webpage or note).
- Go back to the Shortcuts app.
- Tap the name of your new shortcut (“AI Summarize Text”).
- Run it by tapping the play icon (triangle) at the bottom right of the editor, or by tapping the shortcut tile in the ‘All Shortcuts’ list.
- The shortcut should run, use the clipboard text, process it with the AI action (if available and configured), and show you the summary.
Turning Your Shortcut into an Automation (Optional)
Now that you have a Shortcut that uses AI, you can trigger it automatically based on events using Automations.
- Go to the ‘Automation’ Tab: In the Shortcuts app, tap the ‘Automation’ tab.
- Create a Personal Automation: Tap ‘+’ > ‘Create Personal Automation’.
- Choose Your Trigger: Select an event (e.g., ‘Time of Day’, ‘Arrive’, ‘App Opened’, ‘Charger’). Configure the trigger details.
- Add the ‘Run Shortcut’ Action: Tap ‘Next’. Tap ‘Add Action’. Search for “Run Shortcut”. Tap it.
- Select Your AI Shortcut: Tap the grayed-out ‘Shortcut’ word in the action and select the AI shortcut you created (e.g., “AI Summarize Text”).
- Review and Disable ‘Ask Before Running’ (for full automation): On the summary screen, toggle OFF ‘Ask Before Running’ and tap ‘Don’t Ask’.
- Tap ‘Done’.
Now, when your chosen trigger occurs, your iPhone will automatically run the Shortcut you created, performing the AI-powered task.
Examples of Tasks to Automate with AI using Shortcuts:
- Summarize Web Pages: Use “Get Article from Webpage” action, pass text to an AI summarization action.
- Draft Responses: Use input text (like an email body), send to an AI action with instructions to draft a reply, show the draft.
- Categorize Text: Use text input, send to AI action asking it to categorize, save the category to a note.
- Analyze Sentiment: Use text input, send to AI action asking for sentiment analysis, log the result.
- Generate Ideas: Use a prompt, send to AI action to brainstorm, show the ideas.
Limitations and Considerations
- AI Action Availability: The AI actions available in Shortcuts depend on what Apple provides or what actions third-party apps expose. Directly calling powerful APIs requires more technical setup.
- Internet Connection: AI processing usually requires an internet connection.
- Costs: Using AI APIs typically involves costs based on usage.
- AI Accuracy: The quality and accuracy of the AI’s output are not guaranteed. Always review AI-generated content.
- Complexity: Building sophisticated AI workflows in Shortcuts can become complex.
Using AI to automate tasks on iPhone is achieved by integrating AI actions within workflows built in the Shortcuts app. While it requires setting up the right actions or API connections, it allows you to leverage AI capabilities to make many of your daily mobile tasks smarter and faster.
