Karandeep Anand, the former chief executive officer of Character.AI, is set to join The Walt Disney Company as senior executive vice president and chief technology officer. Disney announced the appointment on September 18, with Anand scheduled to begin his new position on October 2. The role is newly established within the company.
Anand will report directly to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro. In his new position, he will oversee several major areas of Disney’s technology operations, including enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and artificial intelligence platforms, product development and engineering.
His responsibilities will extend across Disney’s various businesses. Anand is expected to work closely with technology teams throughout the company as Disney continues efforts to update and strengthen the way it develops and delivers technology. Several members of Character.AI’s technical organization are also expected to move to Disney as part of the transition.
D’Amaro highlighted Anand’s experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and artificial intelligence. According to Disney, the appointment is intended to support the company’s broader technology modernization efforts while keeping storytelling and creative work at the center of its strategy. D’Amaro also emphasized the goal of bringing Disney’s technology efforts together across its businesses.
Anand said Disney’s ability to blend storytelling with technology has long interested him. He expressed enthusiasm about working with the company’s creative teams and building on its existing technological foundation. He said he wants to explore new ways for Disney to connect audiences worldwide with its stories and characters.
Before joining Disney, Anand led Character.AI during a period of significant expansion. Disney said his tenure included an emphasis on user trust and safety as the artificial intelligence platform grew.
Anand previously served as president and chief product officer at financial technology company Brex. Before that, he spent several years at Meta, where he held multiple leadership positions and most recently served as vice president of Ads & Business Products.
Earlier in his career, Anand spent 15 years at Microsoft in senior product and engineering roles. He was also part of the team involved in developing the Azure cloud platform. Anand holds a computer science degree from the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad.
