On March 27, 2026, Apple confirmed the hiring of Lilian Rincon as its new Vice President of Product Marketing for AI. This is not a routine executive shuffle — it is the most aggressive talent acquisition Apple has made in its AI push to date.
Rincon spent nine years at Google, where she helped build Google Assistant "from zero to one" and most recently led Google Shopping's AI transformation. She now reports directly to Greg "Joz" Joswiak, Apple's Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing — placing her at the very top of Apple's decision-making hierarchy for how AI is presented to the world.
Who Is Lilian Rincon?
Rincon is not a marketer who happened to work in tech. She is a product leader with five patents in autonomous software agents and dialogue systems, and over two decades of experience building consumer internet products at scale.
| Google (2017-2026) | VP of Product Management — Led Google Shopping's global product organization and Google Assistant. Built Assistant "from zero to one," scaling it to billions of users. Developed virtual try-on tools using generative AI, Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), and agentic shopping experiences on Gemini. |
| Microsoft / Skype | Held senior roles working on Bing, advertising platforms, and communication products before Google. |
| Patents | 5 patents (2013-2016) in autonomous software agents, dialogue systems, and select-to-call functionality — directly relevant to building an agentic Siri. |
| Recognition | CNET Top Latinos in Technology (2016), Top Women of Venezuela (2016). Board member of MSFT SiliconValley Women, keynote speaker at Girls Who Code. |
Why This Hire Matters
Rincon will lead product marketing AND product management for Apple's AI platforms — both Apple Intelligence and the upcoming Siri overhaul. This dual role is unusual and significant: she's not just selling AI, she's shaping what it becomes.
Her specific expertise in Google Assistant and agentic AI shopping maps precisely to what Apple is trying to build: a Siri that doesn't just answer questions but takes actions across apps — booking restaurants, editing photos, summarizing email chains, making purchases.
Apple's AI Brain Drain from Google
Rincon is Apple's second major Google AI hire in recent months:
- December 2025: Amar Subramanya joined as VP of AI under Craig Federighi. He spent 16 years at Google as an engineering VP on Gemini before a brief stint at Microsoft.
- December 2025: John Giannandrea, Apple's former SVP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, stepped down — signaling a complete reset of AI leadership.
- March 2026: Lilian Rincon joins as VP of Product Marketing for AI, reporting to Joswiak.
Apple is systematically rebuilding its AI leadership with people who built the products Apple is trying to compete against. The message to Wall Street is clear: the Siri overhaul is not a side project — it's existential.
The Siri Roadmap
Rincon's arrival coincides with the massive Apple-Google Gemini partnership (reportedly $1 billion annually) and the confirmed two-phase Siri overhaul:
| Phase 1: Siri 2.0 | Spring 2026 (iOS 26.4) | Context awareness, screen recognition, basic cross-app operations |
| Phase 2: Siri Chatbot | Fall 2026 (iOS 27) | Full conversational AI, 20+ turn exchanges, complex multi-step workflows, deep third-party app control. Codenamed "Campos". |
The Strategic Reporting Line
A critical detail: Rincon reports to Joswiak (Marketing), not Federighi (Engineering). This is deliberate. Apple is ensuring that "Apple Intelligence" is woven into the brand identity — not buried as a technical feature that users don't understand or can't find.
Compare this to Google, where AI features often launch with engineer-friendly names and confusing product hierarchies. Apple's bet is that marketing AI correctly is just as important as building it correctly.
The Bottom Line
By bringing in Lilian Rincon, Apple isn't just hiring a marketer — they're onboarding one of the chief architects of the modern virtual assistant. She built Google Assistant from nothing to billions of users. Now she's been given the keys to rebuild Siri.
WWDC 2026 (June 8) just got a lot more interesting.
Sources: 9to5Mac, Axios, MacRumors, AppleInsider, LinkedIn