‘Key Alexa Figure’ to Lead Boston Dynamics as Hyundai Motor Group Accelerates Physical AI

[Financial News] Boston Dynamics, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group, has appointed Rohit Prasad, who has led Amazon’s artificial intelligence (AI) business, as its new chief executive officer (CEO). By putting at the helm a technology leader with experience spanning the development of conversational AI platform Amazon Alexa, artificial general intelligence (AGI) and generative AI, the company is accelerating its “physical AI” business, which combines AI with robotics. The move is also expected to give a further boost to the commercialization of robots using Hyundai Motor Group’s manufacturing, logistics and mobility sites.
Boston Dynamics said on the 7th that it had appointed Rohit Prasad as its new CEO to strengthen its competitiveness in physical AI.
The new CEO, Prasad, has led the development of Amazon’s key AI technologies, from conversational AI to generative and multimodal AI and AGI. He played a key role from the early days of Amazon Alexa’s development and served as senior vice president and chief scientist for Alexa and AGI.
More recently, he oversaw development of the Amazon Nova family of foundation models, its proprietary generative AI models. He also has experience taking AI beyond research and development, connecting the technology to real-world products and services and extending it across developer and partner ecosystems.
Boston Dynamics expects Prasad to focus on linking technology with business. The company aims to bring advanced AI to robot hardware regarded as among the world’s best, speeding up the deployment and commercialization of intelligent robots in industrial settings.
Before joining Amazon, Prasad spent about 14 years at Raytheon BBN Technologies, where he worked on machine-learning research and applied technology development for the U.S. government and private sector. He is seen as having experience across the entire AI technology lifecycle, from basic research through product development and commercialization.
The appointment is also closely aligned with Hyundai Motor Group’s physical AI strategy. The key is to combine Boston Dynamics’ robotics technology and AI expertise with Hyundai Motor Group’s manufacturing, logistics and mobility sites, building a system that takes technology from development and validation through to commercialization.
Hyundai Motor Group is expanding the potential applications of physical AI in manufacturing by using Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robots, including Atlas. The ability to use real industrial sites to validate technology is seen as a competitive advantage that sets the group apart from robotics companies focused on research and development.
In particular, given that Prasad has experience at Amazon expanding an AI platform into products, services and ecosystems, efforts to turn Boston Dynamics’ robotics technology into a large-scale business are also expected to gather pace.
His long-standing presence in Boston is another advantage. Boston is a global robotics hub, home to a concentration of world-class universities, research institutions, and AI and robotics startups. The local academic and technology networks Prasad has built are expected to help secure key talent and foster external technology partnerships in the future.
Prasad said, “Boston Dynamics is a company with distinctive capabilities for realizing physical AI, based on world-class robotics technology. By combining advanced AI and robotics, we will create meaningful value in the real world and expand the application of robotics across industries.” He added, “We will build intelligent systems that will lead the next leap forward in physical AI.”
Under its new leadership, Boston Dynamics plans to accelerate the integration of robotics and AI and expand the capabilities and applications of intelligent robots. The task ahead is expected to be combining these efforts with Hyundai Motor Group’s industrial base to turn physical AI technology into greater productivity and business value at real-world sites.

[email protected] Kim Dong-ho Reporter