Disney has hired Karandeep Anand, former CEO of Character.AI, as its first chief technology officer. Disney previously threatened Character.AI with a cease and desist letter in September 2025 over copyright infringement.

Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro praised Anand's experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI. Since becoming CEO in February, D'Amaro has pushed Disney's technology ambitions, with Disney+ central to its future. Anand will oversee enterprise technology and data and AI platforms, bringing several Character.AI technical staff with him.

Disney is also promoting Adam Smith to Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer for Disney Entertainment. The hiring is surprising given Disney's prior stance. In September 2025, Disney sent Character.AI a cease and desist letter, claiming its chatbots based on Disney characters were harmful to children. Character.AI had already been named in wrongful death lawsuits involving underage users.

Disney later agreed to license characters to OpenAI for its Sora app in December 2025. If AI is part of Disney's future, Anand's experience outweighs past misgivings.