Amazon Web Services VP of AI Matt Wood Departs After 15 Years

Amazon Web Services VP of AI, Matt Wood, is leaving the company

Matt Wood, the Amazon Web Services vice president who was a longtime champion of the cloud giant's machine learning and artificial intelligence initiatives, is leaving the company after 15 years. Wood announced his exit from Amazon in a LinkedIn post Wednesday morning. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed his departure to GeekWire. There's no word yet on a potential successor for Wood in the role. He hinted in his post that he'll be surfacing elsewhere soon, writing, "I'm excited to continue bringing reinvention, transformation, and the future to more organizations in my next role (more to come on that; stay tuned)." Wood was involved in Amazon's machine learning and business intelligence initiatives for many years, long before the rise of generative artificial intelligence. He became AWS VP of AI in September 2022, just before OpenAI's ChatGPT showed the potential of generative AI, spurring AWS and others to scramble to catch up. Most recently, Wood was involved in the rollout of Amazon Q, the company's generative AI assistant for business intelligence and software development. Wood's departure is the latest in a series of executive changes in Amazon's cloud division, coming about five months after Adam Selipsky stepped down as AWS CEO, succeeded by Matt Garman in the role.

AWS VP of AI Matt Wood Departs

Longtime Amazon Web Services executive Matt Wood said he is leaving the company after 15 years. He most recently served as the cloud provider's vice president of artificial intelligence products. A spokesperson for AWS confirmed Wood's departure. Wood didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. "I'm excited to continue bringing reinvention, transformation, and the future to more

AWS AI VP And Longtime Innovator Says 'Farewell To Amazon'

AWS AI Vice President Matt Wood, who helped launched everything from Lambda and SageMaker to DeepRacer and EMR, is leaving Amazon after 15 years. Here's what you need to know. "After 15 incredible years, it's time for me to say farewell to Amazon," said Wood in a LinkedIn post Wednesday morning, which has already generated hundreds of comments. Wood is AWS' vice president of artificial intelligence. He first joined AWS in 2010 and has been part of every AWS re:Invent conference since it began in 2012. Wood has worked across AWS cloud businesses -- including helping to launch Lambda, Kinesis, SageMaker, DeepRacer, Athena, and EMR -- with a special focus on data, analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, according to his AWS biography. "When I joined AWS, the cloud computing landscape was just beginning to take shape. It has been an extraordinary journey to be part of a team that has fundamentally transformed how businesses operate, grow, and innovate," said Wood. [Related: Cisco COO Jumps to AWS As VP Of Global Sales Operations] In his AI VP role, he worked closely with customers, partners, and internal AWS teams to drive effective use of AI across every industry. At AWS, Wood said he had the privilege of being at the forefront of the future, "putting technology that was once out of reach into the hands of every builder and business, helping to reinvent entire industries." Wood could not be reached for comment by press time. AWS AI Leader's Past And Future After six years working in product management and strategy at AWS, Wood was promoted to vice president of machine learning and business intelligence in 2016. Then in 2022, he became vice president of AI for AWS, according to his LinkedIn profile. Wood has worked with some of AWS' largest customers including the National Football League (NFL), Cerner, Intuit, Pinterest, GE, FINRA, Celgene, and NASA. AWS frequently showcased Wood on stage during many of its conferences. For example, at AWS Summit in New York City this summer, Wood was the keynote speaker. He has also been on stage multiple times during the company's largest conference of the year: AWS re:Invent. Before joining Amazon, he completed a Ph.D. in machine learning and was a post- doctoral fellow at Cornell University. In terms of where Wood will land next, he says, "stay tuned." "I'm excited to continue bringing reinvention, transformation, and the future to more organizations in my next role (more to come on that; stay tuned)," Wood said in his post on LinkedIn.