The Walt Disney Company has appointed technology executive Karandeep Anand to become its first Chief Technology Officer as AI and digital technology continue to disrupt the global entertainment industry and create a new senior leadership position.
Disney announced on September 18 that Anand will join the company as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, effective October 2. He will report directly to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro.
Anand brings extensive experience in technology, artificial intelligence and consumer products to Disney as well. He most recently served as CEO of Character.AI, the generative AI chatbot company, and was President and Chief Product Officer at fintech firm Brex and was a senior executive at Meta and Microsoft.
Anand spent 15 years in senior product and engineering roles at Microsoft and was part of the team that built the Azure cloud platform. At Meta, he was Vice President of Ads and Business Products. His skills in cloud infrastructure, consumer technology, product development and AI.
In his new job at Disney, Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product and engineering. He will work with technology teams across Disney’s business segments as they are trying to modernize how it develops and delivers technology.
Disney also said several members of Character.AI’s technical team will join him.
Disney’s new appointments come as technology has taken center stage as well as its overall business strategy for the company. D’Amaro has stressed the need to connect customers and the company is positioning Disney+ as a major digital platform.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly permeating the media and entertainment business, from content discovery and personalization to production tools, data analysis and digital experiences. Disney has already been experimenting with AI-powered search and discovery on services such as ESPN and Disney+.
Anand’s appointment is also notable because of his previous relationship with Character.AI. Disney sent the AI company a cease-and-desist letter in 2025 over the unauthorized use of Disney characters on its platform. Character.AI dropped the Disney characters.
And despite that previous dispute, Disney is now bringing Anand and his technical team into the company as it strengthens its technology leadership.
Anand, who holds a computer science degree from the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, said he has always appreciated Disney’s marrying of storytelling with technology.
He is also in a new position, and AI, data and digital infrastructure are all just becoming more and more important for Walt Disney to connect with audiences worldwide.
