Boston Dynamics names Amazon AI veteran Rohit Prasad as new CEO

Boston Dynamics, the robotics company under Hyundai Motor Group, has appointed Rohit Prasad — who led Amazon's AI business — as its new CEO. The move is aimed at accelerating the commercialization of physical AI by combining generative and multimodal AI with the company's existing robotics technology, including the humanoid robot Atlas.

Boston Dynamics announced Wednesday that Prasad had been named CEO, filling a position that had been vacant for roughly seven months.

Former CEO Robert Playter, who had led the company since 2019, stepped down Feb. 27, after which Chief Financial Officer Amanda McMaster had been serving as acting CEO.

Prasad is an AI specialist who was involved in the development of Alexa, Amazon's voice AI service, from its early stages. He has led the development of technologies spanning conversational AI, generative AI, multimodal AI — which processes multiple types of information simultaneously — and artificial general intelligence.

After joining Amazon in 2013, he served as director of machine learning and then chief scientist for Alexa. From 2021 to 2023, he was senior vice president and chief scientist of the Alexa division, and subsequently held the same title at Amazon's AGI organization through 2025.

At the AGI organization, he oversaw the development of Nova, Amazon's proprietary generative AI foundation model family.

His experience translating AI research into real-world products and services was also cited as a key factor in his appointment. Beyond leading Alexa's AI strategy and core technology development, he helped build the ecosystem connecting products and services with developers and partners.

Boston Dynamics chose Prasad to add AI capabilities and business acumen to the company's existing hardware strengths. The plan is to deepen the integration of AI and robotics to speed up the deployment of intelligent robots in industrial settings and bring them to market sooner.

At the heart of the physical AI race is the ability to build robots that can perceive their surroundings and make independent decisions without requiring humans to program each movement individually. Boston Dynamics aims to combine its strengths in robot motion and control technology with Prasad's AI expertise.

Before joining Amazon, Prasad spent about 14 years at Raytheon BBN Technologies, conducting machine learning research and applied technology development for government and private-sector clients, with experience spanning basic research through product development.

He holds a bachelor's degree in electronics and communications engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. In 2008, he completed an executive program at MIT Sloan School of Management.

His long-standing ties to the Boston area are also considered an asset. The city is home to a concentration of research institutions, including MIT, as well as AI and robotics startups, and the company believes his local network will help attract talent and foster research partnerships.

Collaboration with Hyundai Motor Group is also expected to become more concrete. Boston Dynamics uses Hyundai Motor Group's vehicle production factories and logistics facilities as testing and development grounds for its robotics technology, accumulating real-world data before expanding into other industries.

Last month, Boston Dynamics opened a Robotics Metaplant Application Center inside Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Georgia. There, Atlas is being trained in real manufacturing environments on tasks such as "part sequencing" — arranging automotive components in the correct assembly order.

Hyundai Motor Group plans to begin deploying Atlas at HMGMA's manufacturing operations in 2028 and, after further validation, expand its use to tasks such as parts assembly by 2030.

"Boston Dynamics has differentiated capabilities in realizing physical AI, built on world-class robotics technology, and I am honored to be joining at such a pivotal moment for the robotics industry," Prasad said. "I look forward to building intelligent systems that merge advanced AI and robotics to create meaningful value in the real world and drive a new leap forward in physical AI by expanding robotics across industries."