Key Notes
- Rohit Prasad becomes Boston Dynamics CEO on October 7, 2026.
- His Amazon experience spans Alexa and the Nova foundation-model family.
- Atlas factory training and Hyundai’s planned expansion frame the commercialization challenge.
Boston Dynamics has appointed former Amazon AI executive Rohit Prasad as chief executive, effective October 7, as the Hyundai Motor Group-owned robot maker pushes to turn advances in artificial intelligence into commercial machines.
The company announced the appointment on October 6. Prasad is also expected to join its board, subject to approval, with a mandate centered on combining robotics and advanced AI for industrial and commercial applications.
Prasad succeeds Robert Playter, who stepped down in February, Reuters reported.
From Alexa and Nova to Physical AI
Prasad spent 12 years at Amazon, serving as senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa and Artificial General Intelligence. Before that, he worked for nearly 14 years at Raytheon BBN Technologies on machine-learning research and applications.
His experience includes helping build Alexa and leading Amazon’s Nova foundation-model family. Amazon’s own leadership update credited him with creating Nova and building its AGI organization, giving him a background in bringing AI research into products used by businesses and consumers.
At Boston Dynamics, the challenge shifts to systems that must act reliably in physical workplaces. The company sells the Spot inspection quadruped and Stretch box-handling robot, while developing its electric Atlas humanoid for industrial work.
Atlas Is Already Training Inside a Hyundai Factory
The leadership change comes shortly after Boston Dynamics opened its training center at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America near Savannah, Georgia, on September 21. Atlas robots there are learning automotive parts logistics and sequencing before more complex assembly tasks.
As RobotsBeat reported in its RMAC coverage, the program connects robot training with Hyundai’s manufacturing operations. Boston Dynamics says the center will move into a building approximately 10x larger in 2027, while component-assembly applications are planned for 2030.
Hyundai’s stated ambitions include deploying 25,000 Atlas robots across Hyundai and Kia plants over the next few years and establishing a U.S. facility capable of producing 30,000 robots annually. Those figures describe planned deployment and production capacity, rather than robots already working on assembly lines.
The Commercial Test Goes Beyond AI Models
Boston Dynamics has also been refining the hardware needed for that work. Its new Atlas hands have four fingers and 13 degrees of freedom, with a design intended to support tool use and repositioning objects within a grasp.
The company’s deployment account describes another requirement: robots must communicate with warehouse-management systems and supervisors, report their work status, and signal mistakes. Successful deployment therefore depends on the surrounding software and operating processes as well as the machine.
Prasad arrives with experience scaling AI products. The next measure of progress will be how that experience translates into robots that customers can integrate, maintain and use consistently through everyday industrial shifts.
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