diff --git a/mlir/include/mlir/Conversion/StandardToLLVM/ConvertStandardToLLVM.h b/mlir/include/mlir/Conversion/StandardToLLVM/ConvertStandardToLLVM.h
--- a/mlir/include/mlir/Conversion/StandardToLLVM/ConvertStandardToLLVM.h
+++ b/mlir/include/mlir/Conversion/StandardToLLVM/ConvertStandardToLLVM.h
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 namespace LLVM {
 class LLVMDialect;
 class LLVMType;
+class LLVMPointerType;
 } // namespace LLVM
 
 /// Callback to convert function argument types. It converts a MemRef function
@@ -281,8 +282,8 @@
   void setConstantStride(OpBuilder &builder, Location loc, unsigned pos,
                          uint64_t stride);
 
-  /// Returns the (LLVM) type this descriptor points to.
-  LLVM::LLVMType getElementType();
+  /// Returns the (LLVM) pointer type this descriptor contains.
+  LLVM::LLVMPointerType getElementPtrType();
 
   /// Builds IR populating a MemRef descriptor structure from a list of
   /// individual values composing that descriptor, in the following order:
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Conversion/StandardToLLVM/StandardToLLVM.cpp b/mlir/lib/Conversion/StandardToLLVM/StandardToLLVM.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Conversion/StandardToLLVM/StandardToLLVM.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Conversion/StandardToLLVM/StandardToLLVM.cpp
@@ -642,9 +642,11 @@
             createIndexAttrConstant(builder, loc, indexType, stride));
 }
 
-LLVM::LLVMType MemRefDescriptor::getElementType() {
-  return value.getType().cast<LLVM::LLVMType>().getStructElementType(
-      kAlignedPtrPosInMemRefDescriptor);
+LLVM::LLVMPointerType MemRefDescriptor::getElementPtrType() {
+  return value.getType()
+      .cast<LLVM::LLVMType>()
+      .getStructElementType(kAlignedPtrPosInMemRefDescriptor)
+      .cast<LLVM::LLVMPointerType>();
 }
 
 /// Creates a MemRef descriptor structure from a list of individual values
@@ -894,7 +896,7 @@
 Value ConvertToLLVMPattern::getDataPtr(
     Location loc, MemRefType type, Value memRefDesc, ValueRange indices,
     ConversionPatternRewriter &rewriter) const {
-  LLVM::LLVMType ptrType = MemRefDescriptor(memRefDesc).getElementType();
+  LLVM::LLVMType ptrType = MemRefDescriptor(memRefDesc).getElementPtrType();
   int64_t offset;
   SmallVector<int64_t, 4> strides;
   auto successStrides = getStridesAndOffset(type, strides, offset);
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Conversion/VectorToLLVM/ConvertVectorToLLVM.cpp b/mlir/lib/Conversion/VectorToLLVM/ConvertVectorToLLVM.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Conversion/VectorToLLVM/ConvertVectorToLLVM.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Conversion/VectorToLLVM/ConvertVectorToLLVM.cpp
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@
   Value base;
   if (failed(getBase(rewriter, loc, memref, memRefType, base)))
     return failure();
-  auto pType = MemRefDescriptor(memref).getElementType();
+  auto pType = MemRefDescriptor(memref).getElementPtrType();
   ptr = rewriter.create<LLVM::GEPOp>(loc, pType, base);
   return success();
 }
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@
   Value base;
   if (failed(getBase(rewriter, loc, memref, memRefType, base)))
     return failure();
-  auto pType = MemRefDescriptor(memref).getElementType();
+  auto pType = MemRefDescriptor(memref).getElementPtrType();
   auto ptrsType = LLVM::LLVMType::getVectorTy(pType, vType.getDimSize(0));
   ptrs = rewriter.create<LLVM::GEPOp>(loc, ptrsType, base, indices);
   return success();
@@ -1151,7 +1151,7 @@
 
     // Create descriptor.
     auto desc = MemRefDescriptor::undef(rewriter, loc, llvmTargetDescriptorTy);
-    Type llvmTargetElementTy = desc.getElementType();
+    Type llvmTargetElementTy = desc.getElementPtrType();
     // Set allocated ptr.
     Value allocated = sourceMemRef.allocatedPtr(rewriter, loc);
     allocated =