Apple rides AI coding wave with Xcode upgrade

By
Sabrina Ortiz
•

Feb 3, 2026

•

9:12pm UTC

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pple’s Xcode is home to millions of developers who contribute to its broad ecosystem of apps, and it just got a big AI upgrade

On Tuesday, Apple launched Xcode 26.3, which integrated agentic coding capabilities powered by OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude Agent. These agents can collaborate with developers throughout the development lifecycle, including searching documentation, updating project settings, exploring file structures, and more, according to the blog post.

Another standout feature is the ability for users to use the agents to visually verify their code, using a “Preview Screenshot” tool to grab an image of the running app or preview and then visually analyze that screenshot to confirm the UI looks as intended, such as if the liquid glass effect was implemented correctly.

Ultimately, Apple noted that the combination of Xcode's native features with the capabilities offered by these powerful agentic tools makes for a killer combination for developers, adding significant capabilities to what the agents can do on their own.

Xcode 26.3 also brought support for Model Context Protocol (MCP), Anthropic's open standard for connecting AI to data systems. This enables developers to use any compatible AI tool in XCode, adding flexibility to their workflows.


Our Deeper View

This can be seen as Apple further departing from its original goal of building the most advanced AI models and tools itself and instead adopting advanced models already available on the market. Ultimately, this is a better approach for the company, as it can still leverage its competitive advantage: a loyal base of users and developers entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. Meanwhile, it can keep them using its tools, such as Xcode, rather than jumping on the wave of hot new AI coding companions.