Rohit Prasad
Rohit Prasad is an AI leader who helped build Alexa and led development of Amazon’s Nova family of foundation models. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications engineering in India and an electrical engineering master’s at Illinois Tech in 1999, then led machine-learning research at Raytheon BBN before joining Amazon in 2013. At Amazon, he led Alexa’s business and its AGI organization; TIME named him to its 2024 list of 100 Most Influential People in AI. Since October 2026, he is CEO of Boston Dynamics, which develops intelligent robotic systems for industrial and enterprise environments.
- Now at
- Boston Dynamics
- Works
- 105
- Citations
- 1,580
- h-index
- 21
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.
Timeline
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1999
Electrical engineering degrees
He earns a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications engineering from Birla Institute of Technology in India and completes an electrical engineering master’s at Illinois Tech in 1999.
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Before 2013
Machine learning at BBN
Before Amazon, he spends nearly 14 years at Raytheon BBN Technologies, leading machine-learning research and its real-world applications for government and commercial use.
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2013
Joining Amazon for Alexa
In 2013, he joins Amazon to build Alexa’s conversational AI, with work on far-field speech recognition, natural-language understanding, and Echo’s underlying machine-learning technologies.
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2022
Leading Alexa’s business
Amazon names him leader of the Alexa business in 2022 while he serves as head scientist.
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2024
Amazon Nova models
He heads Amazon’s AGI organization and leads development of its Nova models. Amazon introduces the Nova family of foundation models in 2024, and TIME names him to its 2024 list of 100 Most Influential People in AI.
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April 2025
Amazon Nova Sonic
Amazon introduces Nova Sonic in April 2025 as a foundation model that unifies speech understanding and generation for more natural voice conversations.
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December 2025
Leaving Amazon
He decides to leave Amazon at the end of 2025 after leading Nova’s creation and the AGI organization.
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Since October 2026
CEO of Boston Dynamics
He becomes Boston Dynamics CEO in October 2026; the company develops intelligent robotic systems for industrial and enterprise environments.
Sources and credits
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- Rohit Prasad | Institute of Design
- From Illinois Tech Magazine: Alexa, Challenge Me | Illinois Institute of Technology
- Boston Dynamics Appoints Rohit Prasad as Chief Executive Officer | Boston Dynamics
- Peter DeSantis to lead Amazon’s AI models, silicon, and quantum computing efforts
- Amazon’s new head of Alexa shares his vision for the future, including new shopping and entertainment features
- Amazon Nova: Meet our new foundation models in Amazon Bedrock
- Introducing Amazon Nova Sonic: A New Gen AI Model for Building Voice Applications and Agents
- Amazon shakes up AI team as veteran Prasad leaves, DeSantis promoted