On Monday, Apple's list of finalists for its coveted "iPhone App of the Year" award once again reveals how the iPhone maker is downplaying the impact of AI technology on the mobile app ecosystem. As it did last year, Apple's 2024 list of top iPhone finalists favors more traditional iOS apps, including those that help iPhone users perform specific tasks like recording professional video (Kino), tailoring their running plans (Runna), or organizing their travels (Tripsy). Other AI apps like ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and those that create AI photos or videos were not nominated for iPhone App of the Year.

Given the popularity of ChatGPT, also now an Apple partner for its Siri improvements, it's surprising to find the app has not earned any official year-end accolades from Apple's App Store editorial team, despite its adoption of clever new features in 2024, like an Advanced Voice Mode for chatting with the AI virtual assistant and a web search feature that challenges Google.

While ChatGPT is regularly featured within the App Store and Google Play's editorial suggestions, both Apple and Google last year avoided nominating ChatGPT as an overall winner, despite the app becoming the fastest-growing consumer application in history in early 2023 when it reached 100 million users shortly after its launch. This year, Google dubbed party-planning app Partiful its app of the year.

Despite ChatGPT's snub, a small number of AI-powered apps made appearances on Apple's other 2024 finalist lists, like those for the iPad and Mac App of the Year.

But among Apple's list of 45 finalists across various categories in apps and games, AI-powered apps were mentioned only a few times. Moises, an app that offers AI tools for practicing music, was nominated alongside kids app Bluey: Let's Play and animation app Procreate Dreams for iPad App of the Year. Adobe Lightroom, which now includes AI-powered features, was nominated along with productivity app OmniFocus 4 and 3D design app Shapr3D for Mac App of the Year.

And, among a dozen Cultural Impact finalists, only one — language-learning app EF Hello — was described by Apple as an app enhanced by AI technology. (While other apps may use AI under the hood, as the finalist Pinterest does, their App Store marketing doesn't promote them as "AI" apps to consumers.)

If anything, Apple's curated list of finalists suggests that apps empowering human creativity, not those assisting with AI automation, are the apps that are worthy of highlighting. Most of the finalists' apps help users do something more with their iPhone or other device, without relying on an AI assistant or features, whether that's designing, organizing, filming, creating, or playing.