Walt Disney on Friday named Karandeep Anand, the former CEO of generative AI chatbot company Character.AI, as its first chief technology officer as artificial intelligence and industry consolidation reshape the media sector.
Anand will join Disney on Oct. 2 and report directly to CEO Josh D’Amaro, who took over as the company’s chief executive from Bob Iger in March, Reuters reported.
In his new role, Anand will oversee enterprise technology, AI platforms and engineering across Disney’s business segments. A number of Character.AI’s technical employees are also expected to join him at Disney.
Anand most recently served as CEO of Character.AI. The company has faced legal scrutiny, including a lawsuit filed in May over allegations involving chatbot impersonation of doctors and a January settlement related to a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the mother of a teenager who died by suicide.
Disney itself sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter in September 2025 over the unauthorized use of its characters.
Before joining Character.AI, Anand served as president and chief product officer at fintech company Brex. He previously held senior positions at Meta’s Facebook and spent 15 years at Microsoft, where he worked on the Azure cloud platform.
Disney’s appointment comes as the company expands its focus on technology and artificial intelligence across its operations.
The move follows a series of leadership changes announced this week. On Thursday, Disney named company insider Adam Smith chairman of its streaming business and created a new television franchise role for Joe Earley, increasing the company’s focus on direct-to-consumer platforms including Disney+ and Hulu.
