Disney names Character.AI boss Karandeep Anand as first tech chief
Disney has hired Character.AI chief executive Karandeep Anand as its first chief technology officer.
The appointment was announced on 18 September 2026, according to Reuters. Anand will start in the role on 2 October. He will report directly to Disney chief executive Josh D'Amaro, as reported by Deadline.
As CTO, meaning the executive in charge of technology across the whole organisation, Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product and engineering. In plain terms, that spans the internal systems staff use every day, the computing backbone that keeps digital services running, and how Disney builds software and works with data and artificial intelligence.
Anand joins Disney straight from Character.AI, the artificial intelligence company he led as chief executive. Before that job, he was president and chief product officer at Brex. That title combined day-to-day leadership with responsibility for what the company builds.
His career before that was long and centred on big tech platforms. He spent 15 years at Microsoft in senior product and engineering leadership roles. He then moved to Meta's Facebook, where he most recently served as vice-president of ads and business products.
A number of technical team members from Character.AI are expected to join Disney alongside him, according to Deadline. No names or numbers were given. The group move suggests Anand will arrive with people who have already built with him.
There is history here. Disney sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter in September 2025 over alleged unauthorised use of copyrighted characters. That letter was reported by Deadline as part of the appointment news. It makes this hire striking. A year ago, the two companies were on opposite sides of a copyright dispute.
For people watching Disney films, series and streams, this job sits behind the screen. It does not decide what gets ordered, renewed or cancelled. It covers the systems that make, deliver and measure those shows.
