Disney CTO: Karandeep Anand to Take Charge of New Technology Role

Disney CTO: The Walt Disney Company has appointed Karandeep Anand as its first Chief Technology Officer, creating a new senior leadership position as the entertainment giant puts greater focus on technology and artificial intelligence.

Anand, who most recently served as CEO of Character.AI, will officially join Disney on October 2. Along with the CTO role, he will serve as Senior Executive Vice President and report directly to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro.

His new responsibilities will cover a wide technology portfolio. Disney said Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product and engineering across the company’s different business segments.

Anand brings experience from several major technology companies. Before taking over as CEO of Character.AI, he was President and Chief Product Officer at fintech company Brex. He also held leadership positions at Meta, including Vice President of Ads and Business Products, and spent about 15 years at Microsoft in product and engineering roles.

His time at Microsoft included work connected to the Azure platform, giving him experience with large-scale cloud infrastructure. At Meta, his responsibilities included products connected with Facebook’s business and advertising operations. His most recent role at Character.AI placed him directly in the fast-moving consumer AI sector.

Disney’s decision comes at a time when technology is becoming increasingly tied to the way entertainment companies create content and interact with audiences. The company has been expanding its use of AI and other digital tools across its businesses, including work on AI-powered search and discovery for ESPN and Disney+.

D’Amaro said Anand brings experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI. Disney also highlighted his product and technical background as the company looks to strengthen the role of technology across its operations.

For Anand, the move represents a shift from leading an AI-focused company to taking responsibility for technology across one of the world’s largest entertainment businesses. At Character.AI, he helped lead the company as its consumer AI platform expanded, while also focusing on user trust and safety.

Disney said several members of Character.AI’s technical team are also expected to move to the company. That could help bring additional AI and engineering experience into Disney’s technology organisation as Anand begins his new role.

The company has been making other changes to its technology and digital leadership as well. Earlier this month, Disney announced that Adam Smith would become Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer for Disney Entertainment, with responsibility for areas including product, engineering, advertising technology, viewer experience and data analytics across Disney+ and Hulu.

Anand’s appointment therefore comes as part of a broader push to strengthen technology across Disney’s businesses. The company says its goal is to use technology in support of creativity while building more connected experiences for audiences.

Anand’s academic background also has a connection to India. He holds a degree in Computer Science from the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad.

In his first comments about the appointment, Anand said he had admired Disney for its ability to combine storytelling with technology. He said he was looking forward to working with the company’s creative teams and using technology to help connect Disney’s stories with audiences around the world.

The new position gives Anand a broad mandate from the start. His responsibilities will span the systems that support Disney’s businesses as well as AI, data, engineering and consumer-facing technology.

He will begin the role on October 2, when the newly created CTO position formally takes effect.