Apple Hires The Executive Behind Google’s Shopping Experiences To Lead Its AI Marketing Efforts

In what is a testament to the seriousness of its oncoming, all-encompassing AI push, Apple has just staged a mini coup of sorts by poaching one of Google's star executives to lead its AI marketing efforts.

Apple has , to head product marketing and management for all of Apple's AI platforms. Of course, we'll likely get a first glimpse of Apple's overarching AI-related marketing plans at its upcoming WWDC 2026 in June.

Do note that Apple's poaching of Rincon is currently being perceived as something of a coup, especially given the ex-Google exec's star credentials. Consider the fact that Rincon has worked on Google Assistant, and more recently, served as a director of product management in the Google Shopping division, managing to win plaudits in both of these positions.

This comes as Apple is planning huge AI-related changes with the upcoming iOS 27, which appears all set to expand Siri's integration with a number of third-party AI agents , and is expected to culminate in the launch of a completely revamped chatbot Siri that will run on Google's own TPUs and cloud infrastructure, albeit under Apple's ownership. The iPhone manufacturer insists that the arrangement would not result in a change in Apple's stringent privacy-related safeguards.

According to the previous tidbits by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the Siri chatbot will be baked into Apple's software, allowing it to leverage personal data, perform in-app actions, search the web, generate content, including images, provide coding assistance, summarize and analyze information, as well as upload files.

Apple is also designing a feature that will let the ‌Siri‌ chatbot view open windows and on-screen content, as well as adjust device features and settings.

The chatbot Siri will reportedly leverage a much more advanced version of Google's Gemini model, known internally as Apple Foundation Models version 11. According to Gurman, "the model is expected to be competitive with Gemini 3 and significantly more capable" than the one supporting the revamped Siri.

Additionally, Siri will no longer be accessible solely via voice commands. Instead, Apple is debuting a dedicated Siri app with iOS 27, which would serve as a central repository of all past conversations with the AI assistant.

Also, while users can still activate Siri via voice commands or the power button, Apple is testing a new interface that resides within the Dynamic Island. Finally, Apple is attempting to replace its "Spotlight" search function with Siri, allowing for a unified search-related UI. The new search interface will continue to show "Siri Suggestions," which would span across apps, upcoming appointments, and changes to settings suggested by AI.

About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, I've authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.

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