Apple on Thursday disclosed its iPhone sales dipped slightly during the holiday-season quarter, signaling a sluggish start to the trendsetting company’s effort to catch up to the rest of Big Tech in the race to bring artificial intelligence to the masses.

Apple’s iPhone sales fell in the all-important December quarter, a sign that its artificial-intelligence software has yet to kick off a new cycle of growth for its most valuable product.On Thursday, Apple reported that iPhone sales for the quarter were down nearly 1% from the prior year to $69.

Sales of Apple iPhones dropped the end of last year, as the tech firm's roll out of new artificial intelligence (AI) features was met with a lukewarm response. Chief executive Tim Cook said the new features helped to drive stronger sales in the countries where they were available,