Who is running Boston Dynamics now?
Amazon’s former Alexa and artificial general intelligence chief, Rohit Prasad, is the new chief executive of Boston Dynamics, the humanoid robotics company owned by Hyundai Motor Group. Boston Dynamics announced the appointment on October 7, 2026, effective immediately. Prasad succeeds Robert Playter, who stepped down in February.
Why this appointment matters
Prasad joined Amazon in 2013 during the early days of Alexa and eventually became senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa and Amazon’s AGI division. He oversaw the voice assistant’s rise and later led Amazon’s work on frontier AI models.
Boston Dynamics said Prasad would bring his experience “turning physical AI breakthroughs into commercial success” — a phrase that points at the company’s central challenge. Boston Dynamics has spent decades producing the industry’s most impressive robotics demos, from parkouring humanoids to dancing robots. The harder problem now is selling them at scale, and Hyundai has made its ambitions explicit: in January, the group said it aims to build a factory capable of manufacturing 30,000 robot units per year by 2028, and plans to start deploying them across its manufacturing sites that same year.
That timeline is tight, and it explains why a commercialization specialist with an AI research pedigree — rather than a career robotics engineer — got the top job. The appointment suggests Hyundai wants its robotics flagship led by someone who has shipped AI products to hundreds of millions of users, not just built robots that impress on YouTube.
Why it matters
The humanoid robot race has shifted from “can it walk?” to “can it work?” — and the battleground is factories and warehouses, not labs. Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Figure, and Chinese players are all chasing the same commercial deployments. Putting an Amazon-scale product leader in charge signals that Boston Dynamics thinks the AI brain and the go-to-market machine are now the hard parts, not the legs. For anyone watching enterprise robotics, this is the clearest sign yet that Hyundai is treating 2028 as a real commercialization deadline, not a concept timeline.
FAQ
Who was Boston Dynamics’ CEO before Rohit Prasad?
Robert Playter, who stepped down in February 2026.
What did Rohit Prasad do at Amazon?
He joined Amazon in 2013 to work on Alexa, later becoming senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa and Amazon’s artificial general intelligence organization.
What are Hyundai’s robotics manufacturing plans?
Hyundai said in January it aims to build a factory capable of producing 30,000 robot units annually by 2028, and plans to deploy robots across its manufacturing sites starting that year.
Is Boston Dynamics a US company?
Boston Dynamics is owned by Hyundai Motor Group, a South Korean company.
Sources: Reuters