• by Laurie Sullivan , March 27, 2026

Apple announced the appointment of Lilian Rincon to vice president of product marketing for artificial intelligence (AI) on Friday.

The news comes a week after the vice president of shopping announced she would leave Google.

Rincon worked at Google for nearly a decade, overseeing the company’s shopping and assistant products. She has also worked at Microsoft and Skype.

At Google, Rincon helped to build Google Assistant and many other products that impacted billions of people.

She also led the global product organization that handled Google's consumer-facing shopping experiences.

“What I will miss most, though, are the people,” she wrote after making her decision to leave Google public. “I’ve had the honor of working alongside brilliant teammates and leaders who challenged me, inspired me, and made the journey unforgettable.”

In her blog post, she described being “incredibly excited about what comes next, providing a hint of what would come.”

Rincon will report to the Apple CMO Greg "Joz" Joswiak, who oversees the company’s product marketing and management teams, including the development and launch of all major products — Phone, iPad, and Mac.The appointment comes as Apple prepares to release an improved version of Siri, its virtual assistant, later this year, rebuilt using technology from the Google Gemini AI model.

Apple plans to open Siri to outside AI assistants as part of a Siri overhaul in its upcoming iOS 27 operating system update, Bloomberg reported Thursday. With a goal to turn around the company’s AI strategy, Apple is developing new tools that allow AI chatbot apps installed via the App Store to integrate with the Siri assistant.