Amazon’s artificial intelligence leadership is set for a major change. Rohit Prasad, one of the company’s most senior voices in AI and the executive leading its artificial general intelligence (AGI) efforts, will be leaving the company at the end of this year. Amazon confirmed the development on Wednesday, alongside a broader reorganisation of its AI teams that CEO Andy Jassy described as a critical moment for the company.
In a blog post addressed to employees, Jassy said Amazon is restructuring its AGI unit and folding it into a larger, more unified organisation. This new division will not only oversee advanced AI work but will also bring together Amazon’s silicon development and quantum computing teams under one roof. According to Jassy, this move reflects the belief that Amazon has reached what he called an “inflection point” in AI and related technologies.
The expanded division will be led by Peter DeSantis, a long-serving Amazon executive who currently holds the role of senior vice president within Amazon Web Services. DeSantis, who has spent nearly three decades at the company, will now report directly to Jassy, underlining the strategic importance Amazon is placing on this next phase of AI development.
Amazon’s reshuffle comes at a time when the company is eager to push back against the perception that it is trailing competitors in the AI race. Rivals such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic have moved aggressively in recent years, capturing mindshare with fast-evolving models and consumer-facing tools. Amazon, meanwhile, has been building much of its AI strategy around cloud infrastructure, enterprise services and in-house technology.
Over the past year, the company has introduced its own family of foundation models, branded as Nova, while also continuing to invest heavily in custom hardware. Amazon’s Trainium AI chips, designed to handle large-scale model training, are positioned as an alternative to Nvidia’s widely used processors. By grouping AI models, custom silicon and quantum computing together, Amazon appears to be betting on tighter coordination between software and hardware as a way to stand out.
“With the foundation that’s been built, the traction we’re seeing, and Peter’s leadership bringing unified focus to these technologies, we’re well-positioned to lead and deliver meaningful capabilities for our customers,” Jassy wrote in the memo. He added that he is “excited about what this team will build and how these foundational technologies will help shape Amazon’s future.”
Alongside DeSantis’ appointment, Amazon is also strengthening its research bench. Pieter Abbeel, a well-known name in AI research who joined Amazon in 2024 following its acquisition of robotics startup Covariant, will now lead the company’s frontier model research team within the AGI group. The move signals a deeper focus on long-term, cutting-edge AI work rather than just near-term product launches.
DeSantis brings deep institutional knowledge to his new role. He joined Amazon in 1998, during the company’s early growth years, and played a key role in shaping Amazon Web Services. Over time, he rose through the ranks and became an SVP in 2016. For the past four years, he has overseen AWS’s core computing product teams, including compute, storage, databases, security and custom chip development.
Prasad’s departure marks the end of a significant chapter in Amazon’s AI journey. He joined the company in 2013 and spent several years as the head scientist for Alexa, helping define the voice assistant’s underlying intelligence. In 2023, he was asked to take charge of Amazon’s AGI efforts, a role that placed him at the centre of the company’s most ambitious AI goals.
In his message, Jassy praised Prasad’s contributions, calling him “missionary, passionate, and selfless,” and thanked him for his leadership, technical direction and the teams he helped build.
