CHICAGO, September 22, 2026 – The entertainment company has established its first-ever Chief Technology Officer position, appointing Karandeep Anand, who formerly held the CEO role at Character.AI, as the corporation looks to emphasize artificial intelligence and infrastructure in its business plan.
The newly hired CTO, who will start working with the company on October 2, will report directly to Chief Executive Josh D’Amaro. This newly established senior role for Disney is aimed at bringing all the company’s digital infrastructure together under one tech-minded leadership.
It is a very impressive recruitment move. Anand does not come from the world of film studios, TV networks, or theme parks. Rather, he has extensive experience in cloud computing, consumer technology, fintech, and conversational artificial intelligence.
Within Disney, Anand will be responsible for enterprise technology, infrastructure, data technology, artificial intelligence, and engineering in all the company’s businesses. There are some tech employees from Character.AI who are also anticipated to make the switch along with him to Disney.
Prior to Character.AI, Anand worked as the president and chief product officer at Brex. Anand has worked in various senior executive positions at Meta and has also worked for fifteen years at Microsoft, playing an integral role in developing the Azure cloud platform. Anand has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad.
“Karandeep brings experience across infrastructure, consumer technology, and AI,” D’Amaro noted when announcing the move, describing him as both “technical and product-minded.” Anand added that he hopes to help Disney connect fans with its iconic stories “in new and innovative ways.”
However, the role comes with an ironic historical twist. Just one year ago, in September 2025, Disney sent out a cease-and-desist order against Character.AI over the misuse of trademarked Disney characters in its chatbot. The startup was quick to follow. Now, the former CEO of the startup is coming to Burbank to help navigate how the intersection of tech and intellectual property should be handled.
This irony highlights the greater balancing act that Disney has to perform now. Though generative technologies have immense utility in streamlining searches, making personalization in direct-to-consumer streaming services, and enhancing corporate operations, they are also accompanied by thorny legal issues.
And now, Anand comes in at a time when Disney is witnessing a wider transformation in its entire media network structure. It has recently appointed Adam Smith as the chairman of its streaming service and Joe Earley to manage its TV franchises, thus focusing on direct-to-consumer platforms including Disney+ and Hulu.
What Disney will look for in Anand is not the use of algorithms everywhere in the firm. What Anand needs to do is revamp the backend structure of Disney along with the performance of its platforms while ensuring that issues relating to copyright, user safety, and artificial intelligence remain backstage.
