Evercore explains why Apple has the right assets to win the personal agents race

Investing.com -- Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has the technology, user base, and payment infrastructure to become a leading player in personal AI agents, potentially generating billions in new revenue, according to Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani.

In a November 9 research note, Evercore identified Apple’s integration across applications, personal data, and Apple Pay as a competitive advantage over web-based AI agents.

The firm estimates that approximately 550 million to 560 million users worldwide have iPhones compatible with Siri AI, representing a substantial share of Apple’s 1.4 billion active iPhone users.

That compares with estimated user bases of approximately 100,000 for Instinct and 10 million for Meta’s Muse.

Evercore said Apple’s opportunity extends beyond answering questions to executing transactions and completing tasks across applications.

Siri AI currently remains largely request-driven, with limited functionality compared with competing personal agents.

The analysts identified persistent task execution, deeper third-party application connectivity, and improved memory as areas requiring development.

More advanced capabilities could allow Siri to complete tasks in the background, including when users are not actively interacting with their devices.

Evercore also examined the financial potential of Apple’s AI strategy.

Its subscription scenario suggests approximately $21 billion in annual revenue from 125 million paying customers at $14 per month.

A separate transaction-based model projects approximately $45 billion annually, assuming 125 million monthly users spend $600 each on eligible purchases, with Apple collecting a hypothetical 5% fee.

These figures represent illustrative scenarios rather than company guidance.

Supporting more sophisticated AI agents would also require increased computing investment, including spending on cloud infrastructure, model processing, memory, and storage.

Apple could distribute these workloads across on-device processing, its Private Cloud Compute infrastructure, and external cloud providers.

Evercore maintained its Outperform rating on Apple shares and a $380 price target, arguing that successful execution could create new revenue opportunities and strengthen customer loyalty across Apple’s hardware ecosystem.