Vishal Sharma
Vishal Sharma is vice president of artificial general intelligence at Amazon, where the work includes Alexa and the company’s generative models. He founded the messaging startup Wand Labs in 2013, and Microsoft acquired the company in June 2016. His earlier roles included vice president of products at Google, leadership of Google Assistant and YouTube advertising, vice president of products, intelligence, and experience in Google’s Core Developer group, and corporate vice president of Knowledge and Conversation in Microsoft AI and Research. He received an MBA from the University of Chicago, an MS in computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a BTech in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi.
- Now at
- Amazon
Timeline
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2013
Founding Wand Labs
He founds Wand Labs in 2013. The startup builds messaging technology for apps. He is an alumnus of IIT Delhi and previously vice president of products at Google.
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June 2016
Microsoft acquires Wand Labs
Microsoft acquires Wand Labs in June 2016, and he joins the company. He founds the startup in 2013.
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2022
Alexa information at Amazon
In 2022 he is vice president of Amazon Alexa’s Artificial Intelligence Information organization, covering Alexa information on Echo products and Fire TV. Before that Amazon role, he is vice president of products, intelligence, and experience in Core Developer at Google, leads YouTube advertising and Google Assistant, including Google Now, and serves as corporate vice president of Knowledge and Conversation for Microsoft AI and Research. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, an MS in computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a BTech in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and he is founder and chief executive of Wand Labs.
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April 2024
Bedrock and Titan models
In April 2024 he is Amazon’s vice president of artificial general intelligence. He writes about Amazon Titan models and other foundation models offered through Amazon Bedrock. He shares the account with attendees at SXSW 2024.
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March 2025
A talk on Nova models
In March 2025 he speaks at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as Amazon’s vice president of artificial general intelligence. He discusses Nova, a family of multimodal generative models. He says the company has something like three-quarters of a million robots in its warehouses and that Alexa is probably the most widely deployed home AI product.
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As of October 2026
Vice president of AGI
As of October 2026, he is vice president of Amazon’s Artificial General Intelligence Information organization. He leads the team developing Amazon’s entrance into large language models and is responsible for the Alexa experience across Amazon devices and services.
Sources and credits
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- Speaker Details: EmTech MIT 2022
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- Vishal Sharma - keynote speaker - Global Speakers Bureau