Amazon VP Exits Amid Artificial General Intelligence Push

Amazon (AMZN, Financials) said Friday that Karthik Ramakrishnan, a vice president involved in developing artificial general intelligence, has stepped down after 13 years at the company.

Ramakrishnan was part of the team that created the Alexa voice assistant and Echo devices. He previously worked at Netscape and Tellme Networks, later acquired by Microsoft (MSFT). It was not immediately clear whether he had another role lined up.

The departure is one of several recent exits among Amazons senior AI leaders, including Vasi Philomin, who oversaw generative AI projects, and Jon Jones, who led AWSs startups and venture capital division.

Amazon has been increasing its investment in artificial intelligence to compete with rivals such as OpenAI and Google. The company has invested about $8 billion in Anthropic, whose Claude model powers some of Amazons Alexa features and an internal chatbot known as Cedric.

At an internal all-hands meeting this week, AWS chief Matt Garman urged employees to accelerate product launches, warning that delays risk undermining Amazons competitive positioning in AI services.

Investors will look for further details on Amazons AI strategy in its upcoming third-quarter earnings report in late October.