Rohit Prasad

Rohit Prasad is recognized for his significant contributions to artificial intelligence, particularly in the areas of voice computing and generative AI. With a background in electrical engineering and management education from MIT Sloan School, Prasad has directed projects in speech recognition, natural language understanding, dialog science, and machine learning. He holds an MS in electrical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology and a BE in electronics and communications engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, India.

Before joining Amazon, Prasad served as deputy manager and senior director for the Speech, Language, and Multimedia Business Unit at Raytheon BBN Technologies, where he led U.S. government-sponsored research and development in speech-to-speech translation, psychological health analytics, document image translation, and STEM learning.

At Amazon, Prasad served as senior vice president and head scientist for Amazon Alexa, overseeing a multidisciplinary team focused on advancing generalizable AI and integrating human-like intelligence with machine learning. He directed efforts in conversational AI, including far-field speech recognition, natural language understanding, and the machine learning technologies behind Amazon Echo. His work contributed to the development of conversational AI systems used by millions of households globally. Prasad and colleague Toni Reid were recognized by Fast Company among its 100 Most Creative People in Business for their leadership in voice-controlled technology and were also included in Recode's 100 people in tech, business, and media.

Prasad later became senior vice president and head scientist for Artificial General Intelligence at Amazon, leading teams responsible for developing generative AI technologies such as Amazon Nova, including foundation models like Nova 2, Nova Forge, and Nova Act. These advancements were highlighted at Amazon's re:Invent conference. Throughout his career, Prasad has authored more than 100 scientific articles and holds several patents in AI and machine learning.

Prasad's approach to AI emphasizes practical, specialized systems rather than broad, speculative claims about artificial general intelligence. After more than a decade at Amazon, he concluded his tenure as senior vice president and head scientist for Artificial General Intelligence. Prasad's career reflects the intersection of scientific rigor and innovation in human-computer interaction, conversational AI, and generative AI technologies.