The Walt Disney Company is creating a new top-level technology leadership position with the appointment of Karandeep Anand as its first Chief Technology Officer, bringing enterprise technology, artificial intelligence, data and engineering under a single executive mandate.
Mr Anand is scheduled to join Disney on October 2, 2026, as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. He will report to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro.
The newly created role will cover several technology functions across Disney, including infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product development and engineering. The company said the appointment is intended to strengthen coordination across its technology operations and support the development of digital products and experiences.
Most recently, he served as CEO of Character.AI, the generative artificial intelligence company known for its conversational AI platform. Before that, he was President and Chief Product Officer at fintech company Brex. His earlier career included senior roles at Meta, where he worked on advertising and business products. Anand also spent about 15 years at Microsoft, holding product and engineering positions and working on the development of the company’s Azure cloud platform.
He studied computer science at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. Disney’s decision to establish a dedicated CTO position comes as technology becomes increasingly integrated with its entertainment, streaming and consumer businesses.
The company operates a broad portfolio of digital platforms and services, including Disney+, and has been investing in technology to support how audiences discover, access and interact with its content.
As CTO, Mr Anand will have responsibility for technology capabilities that span the company rather than being limited to a single Disney business. That remit includes the infrastructure and platforms supporting data and AI, alongside product and engineering teams.
Disney and Character.AI had previously been involved in a dispute over the use of Disney characters on the AI platform. Disney sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter in 2025 concerning the alleged unauthorised use of its characters, after which the identified characters were removed from the platform.
The CTO appointment is also part of a wider set of leadership changes at Disney. The company recently announced Adam Smith, a former YouTube executive, as chairman of direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment.
With Anand taking charge of the newly created CTO function, Disney will have a single senior executive overseeing key technology capabilities across the organisation, including AI, data, infrastructure, product and engineering.
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