Rohit Prasad, the senior vice president who has been leading Amazon’s artificial general intelligence (AGI) and AI model efforts, is leaving the company at the end of 2025. Prasad, a key architect of Amazon’s Alexa technology and later its Nova AI models, joined Amazon in 2013 and has played a central role in its AI strategy for more than a decade.
Big Reorganization Underway
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced a significant restructuring of the company’s AI teams. Rather than keeping the AGI division separate, Amazon is creating a new unified technology organization that combines:
- Advanced AI model development (including Nova models)
- Custom silicon chip teams (such as Graviton and Trainium)
- Quantum computing efforts
This larger group will be led by Peter DeSantis, a 27-year Amazon veteran and senior vice president in Amazon Web Services (AWS). DeSantis will report directly to Jassy, underscoring the strategic importance Amazon places on AI and related technologies.
Why the Change Matters
Prasad’s departure and the leadership overhaul come as Amazon pushes to sharpen its AI ambitions in a fiercely competitive landscape that includes rivals like Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. The move signals an attempt to bring AI model research, infrastructure, chip development, and quantum computing under one roof — streamlining decision-making and innovation.
New AI Leadership Focus
Under DeSantis’s leadership, Amazon plans to accelerate its development of large AI models and integrate them more deeply with its cloud and hardware offerings. Pieter Abbeel, a noted AI expert and co-founder of robotics company Covariant, has been named to lead the company’s frontier model research team, focusing on cutting-edge model development within the new structure.
Rohit Prasad is exiting Amazon after steering much of its AI work, and the company is consolidating its AI, chip, and quantum teams under Peter DeSantis in a major leadership shift aimed at boosting innovation and competitiveness in next-generation AI.
