Summary Disney appoints former Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand as its first technology chief to lead AI, engineering and enterprise technology operations.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney on Friday appointed technology executive Karandeep Anand as its first chief technology officer, as artificial intelligence and industry consolidation reshape the media landscape.
Anand, the former CEO of generative AI chatbot company Character.AI, will join Disney on October 2 and report directly to CEO Josh D’Amaro.
He will oversee enterprise technology, AI platforms and engineering across Disney’s business segments. Several Character.AI technical staff members are also expected to join him at Disney.
Character.AI has faced legal scrutiny, including a lawsuit in May over chatbot impersonation of doctors, a January settlement concerning a wrongful-death case linked to a teenager’s suicide, and a cease-and-desist letter from Disney in September 2025 over the unauthorised use of its characters.
Before joining Character.AI, Anand served as president and chief product officer at fintech company Brex. He also held senior positions at Meta’s Facebook and spent 15 years at Microsoft, where he helped develop the Azure cloud platform.
The appointment comes a day after Disney named company veteran Adam Smith chairman of its streaming business and created a new television franchise role for Joe Earley, strengthening its focus on Disney+ and Hulu.
