Disney Hires Character.AI CEO as First Tech Chief
Disney Hires Character.AI CEO as First Tech Chief
The News
Disney has named Karandeep Anand its first chief technology officer, handing a newly created job to the former CEO of generative AI chatbot company Character.AI.
The appointment was announced Friday. Anand starts Oct. 2 and reports directly to Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro, who took the top job in March.
It is a pointed hire: Disney sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist in September 2025 over the use of its characters on the platform.
What the Job Covers
Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product and engineering across all of Disney's business segments, according to the company.
Multiple Character.AI technical staff are expected to follow him to Disney.
Timeline
Disney sends Character.AI a cease-and-desist over its characters appearing on the chatbot service.
Character.AI settles a wrongful-death claim tied to a teenager's suicide.
Josh D'Amaro becomes Disney's chief executive.
Character.AI is sued over chatbots impersonating doctors.
Disney names Adam Smith chairman of its direct-to-consumer streaming business.
Disney announces Anand as its first-ever chief technology officer, effective Oct. 2.
Reactions
D'Amaro announced the hire in a memo to employees, the full text of which was published by Business Insider.
Reuters characterized the move as Disney reaching outside the company for a tech chief as AI and industry consolidation upend the media business.
The Hollywood Reporter framed Anand's mandate as shaping the studio for the generative AI era, noting his previous stints at Meta and Microsoft — including roughly 15 years at Microsoft, where he worked on the Azure cloud platform.
What's Next
Anand's first day is Oct. 2.
Disney is expected to lay out more detail in the spring on integrating streaming and shopping inside Disney+, the centerpiece of D'Amaro's push to link fans across streaming, parks, shopping and gaming.
Two open questions hang over the hire: how Disney handles Anand's history at Character.AI while that company's legal exposure is unresolved, and whether Disney strikes a formal partnership with an AI company after its OpenAI deal fell apart.
More
The CTO role did not exist at Disney before this week; the company created it as part of a wider technology push under D'Amaro.
The Anand announcement lands a day after Disney installed Adam Smith atop its direct-to-consumer streaming unit, a second senior tech-and-streaming move in as many days.
Poll
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