The Walt Disney Company appointed Karandeep Anand as its first Chief Technology Officer, effective Oct. 2. Anand, previously CEO of Character.AI, takes on a newly created senior executive vice president role reporting directly to CEO Josh D'Amaro.
Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and artificial intelligence platforms, product and engineering across Disney. His mandate includes modernizing how the company develops and delivers technology across its divisions.
The hire reflects D'Amaro's strategy, outlined in March, to embed technology as a competitive lever across Disney's core assets—storytelling, intellectual property, streaming and parks. D'Amaro said Anand "brings a rare mix of experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI, and will be a vital addition to Disney's senior leadership team as we further our three priorities: great storytelling as our North Star, technology in service of creativity, and operating as One Disney."
Anand led Character.AI, a consumer platform for creating and interacting with character-based chatbots, through a period of rapid user growth. He previously worked at financial technology company Brex and Meta's Facebook. Disney is also recruiting members of Character.AI's technical team.
The appointment signals D'Amaro's focus on unifying Disney's fragmented technology infrastructure—a persistent cost center for media companies. Streaming remains central to this strategy. Disney+ is weighing a free, ad-supported tier, which D'Amaro described as a "front porch" to funnel users into paid plans. The company named Adam Smith as chairman of direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment, overseeing streaming operations.
A key element of D'Amaro's vision involves integrating streaming, shopping and parks into a single digital ecosystem. CFO Hugh Johnston described this as an "integrated ecosystem under the Disney+ banner" at an investor conference earlier this month, combining content, consumer products, parks experiences and gaming. More details are expected in the spring.
