Disney appoints Character.AI head Karandeep Anand as its first chief technology officer

Leadership appointment and direct reporting structure

Walt Disney announced on 18 September 2026 that Karandeep Anand will become the company's first chief technology officer. Anand will take up the post of senior executive vice president and chief technology officer on 2 October 2026, reporting directly to chief executive Josh D'Amaro. In this newly created corporate position, Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, product and engineering, as well as data and artificial intelligence platforms across all Disney segments. Several members of Character.AI's technical staff will also join Disney as part of the transition.

Strategy and direct-to-consumer executive moves

The hiring follows a broader management reorganization initiated under D'Amaro, who took over from former chief executive Bob Iger in early 2026. D'Amaro has focused on aligning the company's digital distribution and streaming assets around Disney+ under a plan termed "One Disney." On 17 September 2026, Disney appointed Adam Smith, formerly the chief product and technology officer for Disney Entertainment and ESPN, as chairman of direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment. Joe Earley, who previously served as co-chairman of direct-to-consumer alongside Smith, was shifted to a new franchise and content position at Disney Entertainment Television.

Disney's chief executive described the strategic rationale for the appointment in a prepared statement.

“Karandeep brings a rare mix of experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI, and will be a vital addition to Disney's senior leadership team as we further our three priorities: great storytelling as our North Star, technology in service of creativity, and operating as One Disney.”

Intellectual property disputes and commercial partnerships

Anand's arrival at Disney follows earlier legal friction between the entertainment company and Character.AI. In September 2025, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Character.AI, alleging that the platform hosted chatbots based on copyrighted Disney franchises without authorization and asserting that the tools were harmful to children. Character.AI complied with the request to remove the characters. Character.AI had also faced wrongful death litigation concerning claims that its conversational chatbots encouraged self-harm among underage users. Disney separately agreed in December 2025 to license characters to OpenAI for the Sora video application, but that arrangement dissolved when Sora was discontinued months later.

Engineering career across Microsoft and Meta

Before being named Disney's chief technology officer, Anand served as chief executive of Character.AI, taking the helm in May 2025 after earlier serving as a board adviser. His prior executive experience includes serving as president and chief product officer at the financial technology company Brex. Between 2015 and 2021, Anand worked at Meta's Facebook, where his roles included vice president of ads and business products. Earlier in his career, he spent 15 years at Microsoft in product and engineering leadership roles, including work on the Microsoft Azure cloud-computing platform.

D'Amaro expressed confidence in Anand's alignment with the company's creative priorities.

“He also has real enthusiasm and respect for Disney, a clear sense of where technology and creativity meet and shares our belief that technology creates the most value when it helps people do their best work.”