TechCrunch: Apple adds natural language workflow creation to Shortcuts in iOS 27

Apple announced at WWDC 2026 that iOS 27 will let users create Shortcuts automations by describing what they want in plain language. Instead of manually linking triggers, conditions, and actions through the visual interface, a user describes a workflow in natural language and Apple Intelligence assembles the required steps.

The example Apple used during the announcement: a user asks for a shortcut that sends their partner an estimated arrival time when they leave work. The system identifies the location trigger, pulls in Maps for the travel estimate, and routes the output to Messages—without the user configuring any step individually. Subsequent edits follow the same pattern: describing a change in words rather than reconfiguring the workflow manually.

Apple’s own team acknowledged that creating Shortcuts “can feel complicated,” which is an understatement. The feature has historically been used primarily by technically-oriented users who are comfortable with conditional logic and action chaining. By replacing that interface with natural language input, Apple expands who can access the automation engine without changing what it can do.

For product managers, the implications are practical rather than abstract. The Shortcuts announcement is another data point in a pattern that has been visible for the past year across Copilot, Linear, Cursor, and various enterprise tools: AI is becoming the default access layer for complex functionality. Products with powerful but technically demanding features are getting natural language interfaces, and the result in each case is expanded addressable users without requiring a rebuild of the underlying system. Any PM responsible for a product where a gap exists between what the tool can do and what most users actually access should be watching how these rollouts perform.