An efficient palladium-catalyzed ortho-aroylation of O-arylmethyl and aryl-substituted acetoxime ethers has been developed; this method has high mono-site selectivity and does not require exogenous ligands. Under the direction of a simple exo-acetoxime auxiliary, a broad scope of masked arylmethyl alcohols and phenols as well as various aromatic aldehydes are compatible with this transformation, which probably follows a mechanistic pathway involving a six- or five-membered exo-cyclopalladated intermediate. The strategy can be expediently adopted to prepare synthetically valuable 1H-benzo[d][1,2]oxazines and benzo[d]isoxazoles. The directing group can be easily removed from the products to afford the functionalized diaryl ketones.