Disney is putting technology at the center of its next chapter, creating the company’s first chief technology officer position and bringing in Character.AI executive Karandeep Anand to lead a broad push into artificial intelligence, data, infrastructure and digital products.
The entertainment giant announced Friday that Anand will join Disney on October 2 as senior executive vice president and chief technology officer, taking on a newly created position that will report directly to Chief Executive Officer Josh D’Amaro.
The appointment represents a significant expansion of technology leadership at one of the world’s best-known entertainment companies. Rather than treating technology as a supporting function, Disney is placing it directly within its senior executive structure as the company looks to connect its entertainment businesses through digital platforms, artificial intelligence and new consumer experiences.
Anand will oversee Disney’s enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, as well as product and engineering operations. His responsibilities will span multiple technology teams across the company, with the goal of modernizing how Disney develops and delivers technology.
D’Amaro, who became Disney’s CEO earlier this year, has repeatedly highlighted technology as an important part of his strategy for the company. His approach puts storytelling and Disney’s vast collection of intellectual property at the center, while using technology to expand how audiences experience that content.
The shift comes as Disney continues to focus heavily on streaming and its theme-park business, two areas that have played an important role in the company’s recent growth.
Disney+ is particularly important to the technology strategy. The company has been exploring ways to turn the streaming platform into more than a traditional destination for movies and television shows.
One possibility under consideration is a free, advertising-supported version of Disney+, which D’Amaro has described as a potential entry point for consumers. The company is also exploring ways to combine entertainment, shopping, gaming and other Disney experiences within the platform.
Disney executives have described the vision as an integrated ecosystem in which consumers could move between film and television content, merchandise, theme parks, cruises, games and other experiences connected to Disney’s intellectual property.
That strategy could significantly change the role of Disney+.
Instead of functioning primarily as a streaming service, the platform could become a broader digital gateway into Disney’s entertainment empire, giving technology an increasingly important role in how consumers discover and interact with the company.
The appointment of Anand comes as artificial intelligence is becoming a major part of that transformation.
Before joining Disney, Anand served as CEO of Character.AI, a platform built around conversational artificial intelligence and character-based chatbots. His experience includes leading the company through a period of rapid growth and developing a consumer-focused AI product used by a large online audience.
Anand has also held positions at financial technology company Brex and Meta’s Facebook, giving him experience across consumer technology, artificial intelligence and large-scale digital platforms.
Disney said his background in infrastructure, consumer technology and AI made him a strong addition to the company’s senior leadership team.
His arrival is also notable because Disney and Character.AI have previously been involved in a copyright dispute.
In 2025, Disney sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter over the use of Disney-owned characters on the platform. Character.AI subsequently removed the characters referenced in Disney’s letter and said that while some characters on its service were original, others were inspired by existing characters.
Now, Anand is moving from that AI company to Disney as the entertainment giant looks to expand its own technology capabilities.
The appointment comes at a time when the boundaries between entertainment and technology are rapidly changing. Streaming platforms increasingly compete through recommendation systems, artificial intelligence, personalization, gaming and interactive experiences, while traditional media companies are searching for new ways to turn valuable intellectual property into digital businesses.
For Disney, the challenge is to combine those technologies with one of the company’s biggest advantages: its globally recognised characters, stories and brands.
The company’s technology strategy could therefore influence everything from how audiences watch content to how they shop, play games and interact with Disney’s parks and other businesses.
Creating a dedicated CTO role signals that Disney intends to make that transformation a central part of its corporate strategy.
With Anand set to take the position in October, attention will now turn to how Disney uses artificial intelligence and technology across its sprawling entertainment empire — and whether its digital ambitions can turn Disney+ into a much broader ecosystem connecting content, commerce, gaming and real-world experiences.
For a company built on storytelling, Disney’s next major chapter may increasingly depend on what happens behind the screen as much as what appears on it.
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