Apple integrates Apple Intelligence-powered Writing Tools into new iWork updates
Apple has updated its iWork suite of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote to version 14.4, bringing more Apple Intelligence and other changes and improvements to its productivity software.
Pages, Keynote, and Numbers have all received updates.
On Thursday, Apple rolled out updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. This time around, many of the updates are identical for each app, as Apple tries to keep its productivity suite consistent across the three products.
The most notable update is powered by Apple Intelligence. Users on Mac, iPad, and iPhone can now make text edits using Writing Tools directly in their documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Users can now export documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, into other formats using shortcuts. Copy and paste from Freeform has been improved, too.
To take advantage of the features mentioned above, users will need to run macOS 15.4, iPadOS 18.4, or iOS 18.4.
Apple says that when using Pages, users can also more easily add additional pages to a word-processing document. It also notes that Screen View on iPad now displays text, images, and other elements in a continuous flow optimized to fit your screen.
Numbers saw the most amount of software-specific updates. Apple points out that it has improved compatibility when importing or exporting Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
Users can now utilize over 30 new advanced functions including LET, LAMBDA, FILTER, SORT, and UNIQUE. Results from a single formula are now visible across multiple cells using spilling arrays.
Users can update or download one or all of the iWork products by heading to the App Store on their device of choice.
It's important to note that to use Apple Intelligence features, users will need an M1 Mac or later. When it comes to iPhone or iPad, users need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, an iPad mini with the A17 Pro chip, or any iPad that uses an M1 chip or later.
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Comments
Nope. I AM a writer
Those that can DO
Those that can’t use AI
Now there are MCP servers accessing Apple’s service (so far just Apple Maps and Apple Notes). When the MCP server gets full access to all of the iCloud services via MCP and OpenAI starts supporting it for ChatGPT and their API for use with automation tools, I start having fewer reasons to continue to buy Apple hardware.
Time will tell, but it is not looking
Updated: To be fair, you claimed to be a writer, but you never said you were good at it. Perhaps my criticism is too harsh.
Anyhow AI writing tools here in 2025 aren't going to win any Pulitzer Prizes. They will facilitate the composition of mundane communications like summarizing notes from this morning's meeting into an e-mail or writing basic expository articles.
They will help people with weaker writing skills bring their output to something closer to their colleagues who are more capable of articulating their thoughts into words.
Which brings up one key point. AI doesn't make the user smarter. It just does the work for them. In decades of working in a lot of businesses from small mom-and-pop shops to a Fortune 500 tech company, I've noted a strong correlation between good thinking and good writing. Having AI writing tools do the writing part won't make you think any better. It just takes away some of the tedium, especially for more mundane writing chores (like many work e-mails).
But in order to know if the AI writing tools did a good job, you really need to be a decent writer to begin with and to make sure that the LLM used isn't steering the points the wrong direction.
AI writing tools are also very helpful for people with weaker typing skills or are writing in a language that isn't their native tongue.
In the end AI writing tools are just like any tools and you can choose to use them or not use them. There are carpenters who use circular saws for a lot of work but hand tools for certain tasks, especially finishing work. There are bakers who use large electric mixers for some work, but still end up kneading bread dough and shaping loaves by hand. Cooks. Tailors and seamstresses. Farmers and gardeners. The list goes on and on.
In the same way sometimes I fire up my inkjet printer but I still write thank you notes and postcards by hand.
Apple is not pointing a gun at anyone's head saying they need to use AI assisted tools. Even if Apple Intelligence is turned on, you still need to deliberately click a button (or two) to use the AI assisted functions.
The way Apple is rolling out AI features is relatively unobtrusive and benign, partly because this is really alpha-quality software and they are late to the party, partly because many of the AI functions on smartphones are limited to a small percentage of iPhones in use (iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 family), and partly because Apple has prioritized user privacy which means less data is being sent to the cloud.
It's not the end of the world yet for professional writers. But for sure these tools will improve over time and most people in an office setting will find themselves spending less of the company's time pumping out corpspeak. I sure wish I had AI-assisted spreadsheet tools when I was at my last corporate job.
I saved the pictures and then used the text identifier in Photos to get all the text and copy it into Notes. Then I used the AI writing tools to rewrite the entire document. Then I searched and replaced whatever had to be changed, gave the new document a once-over, saved it to Pages and exported it to Word.
The amount of time for the entire exercise was about 45 minutes. If I had to write the document myself, I would have spent a couple of hours on it.
The entire world is moving towards using these automated tools. I am sure that pretty soon you will not be able to use Windows without using Copilot.
I may not be able to generate a picture from my wedding reception in the style of Studio Ghibli on the Images Playground, but I can use the Writing Tools to save time.
I do not underestimate how useful Apple Intelligence will be.