Apple (AAPL) has hired a former executive from Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) to lead its artificial intelligence (AI) product marketing.
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The iPhone maker has appointed Lilian Rincon as vice-president of product marketing for artificial intelligence. Rincon will report to the company’s marketing chief Greg Joswiak. Rincon previously worked at Alphabet for nearly a decade, where she oversaw the company’s shopping and assistant products.
The appointment of Rincon comes as Apple prepares to ramp-up its AI features and products this year. Apple is expected to release a new version of its Siri virtual assistant that is powered by Alphabet’s Gemini AI model. There are also reports that Apple will make its Siri assistant available to other companies.
Apple’s AI Push
Apple has faced a barrage of criticisms in recent years for not having a more robust AI strategy, and for failing to integrate AI more broadly into its consumer electronic products that include the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. An AI-enabled version of Siri has been delayed several times in recent years.
Apple is looking to make-up lost ground and expectations are running high for the company to debut its new AI-powered Siri digital assistant at its annual developers conference this June. Many analysts are calling for Apple to integrate more AI into its iPhones to help boost sales and spark a global refresh cycle for the smartphone.
Is AAPL Stock a Buy?
Apple stock has a consensus Moderate Buy rating among 24 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 14 Buy, nine Hold, and one Sell recommendations issued in the last three months. The average AAPL price target of $304.66 implies 22.35% upside from current levels.
