Indian-origin Karandeep Anand named Disney’s first-ever CTO to lead AI and technology divisions

To strengthen the way in which it develops technology, artificial intelligence, and digital products, The Walt Disney Company is establishing a new position in the field of technology leadership. The company has named Karandeep Anand, who most recently was the CEO of Character.AI, as its first Chief Technology Officer. Anand will join Disney as Senior Executive Vice President and CTO starting on October 2 and will report directly to CEO Josh D’Amaro.

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In this new position, he will be responsible for enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product and engineering, and will also work with the technology teams in different parts of Disney's business. The appointment takes place because Disney is placing greater emphasis on technology as a means of achieving growth and aims to deliver a more connected experience to fans around the world.

Karandeep Anand joins Disney as CTO

Anand, in his capacity as CTO, will be responsible for Disney's enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms as well as its product and engineering teams; he will collaborate with the company's segment technology teams in order to further modernise the way that Disney builds and delivers technology throughout the organisation.

With Anand's appointment, it is also expected that a number of members of Character.AI's technical team will join Disney.

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From Character.AI to Disney

Most recently, Anand was the CEO of Character.AI, a post in which he guided the company during a time of rapid growth and contributed to the creation of one of the most engaged consumer-AI user bases; furthermore, according to Disney, he also kept user trust and safety a top priority as the platform expanded.

Before joining Character.AI, Anand held the position of President and Chief Product Officer at the financial technology company Brex and also held a number of leadership roles at Meta, his most recent role being Vice President of Ads & Business Products.

In his early career, Anand worked at Microsoft for 15 years in senior positions relating to products and engineering and was a member of the group that developed the Azure platform. He has a degree in Computer Science from the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad.

Disney’s technology push

Josh D’Amaro, the CEO of Disney, stated that Anand would support the company's three priorities - great storytelling as its top goal, the use of technology to serve creativity, and operating as One Disney.

Since he became CEO, D’Amaro has stressed the importance of boosting Disney's direct links with its fans by offering a more connected Disney experience, using Disney+ as its digital focal point.

Anand said that he looks forward to building on the technology capabilities that already exist at Disney in order to help the company connect its fans around the world with its stories and characters in new and innovative ways.