Amazon is undergoing a major leadership restructuring in its artificial intelligence division as Rohit Prasad, the Senior Vice President and head scientist who led the company’s Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) efforts, announces his departure at year’s end. Prasad, who reported directly to CEO Andy Jassy since 2023, was instrumental in establishing Amazon’s AGI group and launching the Nova family of AI models.
The leadership change comes as Amazon faces intensifying competition in the AI race. While Prasad’s team successfully developed the Nova AI models, which have been praised for their efficiency, they still lag behind frontier models from competitors including OpenAI’s GPT series, Anthropic’s Claude Opus, and Google’s Gemini. This performance gap highlights the challenges Amazon faces in catching up to AI industry leaders.
As part of the reorganization, CEO Andy Jassy announced the creation of a new consolidated organization under Peter DeSantis, AWS’s Senior Vice President of Utility Computing. This newly formed group will oversee Amazon’s most critical technology initiatives, including AGI development, AI model research, silicon chip design, and quantum computing efforts. The consolidation suggests Amazon is taking a more integrated approach to its advanced technology strategy.
In another significant appointment, Pieter Abbeel, co-founder of robotics startup Covariant, who joined Amazon last year, will now lead the company’s frontier AI model research team. This move signals Amazon’s commitment to bringing fresh perspectives and expertise to its AI development efforts.
Prasad’s exit is part of a broader pattern of leadership turnover at AWS. Over the past year, several high-profile executives have departed, including VP of AI Matt Wood and VP of generative AI Vasi Philomin. However, Amazon has simultaneously been aggressive in recruiting new talent, bringing in former Microsoft executive Julia White as chief marketing officer, David Richardson as VP of AgentCore, Joe Hellerstein as Vice President and Distinguished Scientist, and Chet Kapoor as VP of security services and observability. This wave of changes reflects Amazon’s efforts to reposition itself in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Key Quotes
Prasad was elevated to report directly to Jassy in 2023 to lead the AGI team, which was tasked with developing Amazon’s ‘most ambitious’ AI models
This quote from Business Insider’s reporting highlights the high expectations placed on Prasad when he took the role, emphasizing that Amazon viewed AGI development as a critical strategic priority requiring direct CEO oversight.
Although Nova models earned some praise for their efficiency, they still trail frontier models such as OpenAI’s GPT offerings, Anthropic’s Claude Opus, and Google’s Gemini
This assessment reveals the core challenge facing Amazon’s AI efforts—despite achieving some technical successes, the company remains behind its primary competitors in the race to develop cutting-edge AI models, which may have contributed to the leadership change.
Our Take
Amazon’s AI leadership overhaul reflects a company at a crossroads in the generative AI revolution. While AWS dominates cloud infrastructure, Amazon has struggled to establish comparable leadership in AI models—the layer that’s capturing public attention and enterprise spending. The consolidation under Peter DeSantis is telling: it suggests Amazon believes its AI advantage will come from vertical integration of models, custom silicon, and infrastructure rather than competing purely on model capabilities. Bringing in Pieter Abbeel, a renowned robotics researcher, to lead frontier AI research is particularly intriguing—it hints that Amazon may be pivoting toward embodied AI and practical applications where its logistics and robotics expertise could provide competitive advantages. This restructuring could either position Amazon for a comeback in AI or represent acknowledgment that it will play a different role than OpenAI or Anthropic in the AI ecosystem.
Why This Matters
This leadership shake-up at Amazon reveals the intense pressure facing tech giants in the AI arms race. Prasad’s departure after just two years leading the AGI initiative suggests potential strategic disagreements or performance concerns regarding Amazon’s AI competitiveness. The fact that Amazon’s Nova models trail behind competitors despite significant investment underscores how challenging it is to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google in frontier AI development.
The consolidation of AGI, AI models, chip design, and quantum computing under a single leader indicates Amazon is adopting a more unified approach to advanced technologies, recognizing that AI leadership requires integration across hardware and software. This restructuring could accelerate Amazon’s AI development by breaking down organizational silos.
For the broader AI industry, this news highlights the volatility and high stakes in AI leadership positions. Companies are making rapid changes to stay competitive, and executives face immense pressure to deliver breakthrough results quickly. The appointment of robotics expert Pieter Abbeel to lead frontier AI research also signals that practical AI applications and embodied intelligence may be increasingly important to Amazon’s strategy, potentially shifting focus from pure language models to more diverse AI capabilities.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-agi-executive-leaving-ai-models-rohit-prasad-2025-12