On Friday, Apple appointed Lilian Rincon as a new VP of Product Marketing for Artificial Intelligence. Rincon, a former Google Shopping and Google Assistant product manager for nearly 10 years, will report to Apple’s VP of Marketing Greg “Joz” Joswiak.
With Apple continuing to develop enhancements to its previously controversial virtual assistant Siri, Rincon’s addition is part of Apple’s effort to increase its presence in the AI assistant market by acquiring experienced executives, such as Rincon. Reports indicate that Siri will be rebuilt using the technology behind Google’s Gemini AI modelan indication of Apple’s willingness to work with a direct competitor to improve on the limitations of its current AI solutions.
Investors and consumers have increased pressure on Apple due to the slow pace of generative AI development compared to its competitors (e.g., Google, OpenAI, Microsoft). Apple has delayed rolling out additional features as part of its overall Apple Intelligence initiativewhich was originally promised upfront, and Siri has lagged behind other advanced voice assistants.
Rincon’s experience with marketing AI-based consumer products and services for Google will support Apple in more effectively communicating the benefits of its new AI offerings to its users. Part of her responsibility will be to position Apple’s AI products in the market based on their seamless integration with Apple’s hardware.
Rincon’s hiring is part of a broader restructuring of Apple’s AI organization, with other changes within the Executive Team. According to CEO Tim Cook and other Apple Leaders, the goal of Apple is to create on-device AI products and services that are privacy-focused and reliant on the overall Apple ecosystem for their functionality.
As the race towards AI acceleratesApple will use its own capabilities and combine them with key external technology partnerships. The addition of targeted marketing follow-up, such as Ricon, will help Apple bridge the gap with its faster-growing competitors, while maintaining its premium brand identity.
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