Disney Names Character.AI Chief Karandeep Anand as First Enterprise-Wide CTO

The Walt Disney Company has appointed Karandeep Anand, until now the chief executive of conversational AI platform Character.AI, as its first company-wide Chief Technology Officer. Anand takes up the newly created post on October 2, reporting directly to Disney Chief Executive Josh D’Amaro. While Disney previously maintained technology chiefs inside individual operating divisions, this marks the first group-wide CTO in the company's history, according to reporting by Bloomberg and coverage by The Next Web (https://thenextweb.com/news/disney-cto-character-ai-anand).

Anand joined Character.AI from fintech Brex, having earlier led advertising and business products at Facebook and spent 15 years at Microsoft. Disney confirmed that it expects members of Anand's technical team from Character.AI to join him in the transition.

The appointment comes roughly a year after a sharp legal clash between Disney and Anand's former company. In September 2025, Disney sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter demanding an immediate halt to unauthorized chatbot impersonations of Disney characters, asserting that the service was filled with bots that were in some instances sexually exploitative and harmful to children. Character.AI removed the infringing characters within days of the notice.

Two months later, on November 25, 2025, Character.AI barred users under 18 from open-ended chat sessions. That restriction followed a Florida lawsuit filed over the death of a 14-year-old boy, whose mother alleged the platform's conversational architecture was addictive and manipulative. Under the modified policy, underage users retained access to prior conversation histories as well as image and video tools, but lost access to live open-ended dialogue.

In his new role, Anand will manage technology across Disney's portfolio as D'Amaro pushes to expand digital offerings. Disney is currently testing AI-assisted search across both Disney+ and ESPN, and plans to introduce video games and interactive experiences alongside film and television streaming.

Disney stated in its hiring announcement that Anand prioritized user trust and safety while scaling Character.AI. The hire coincides with tightening regulatory scrutiny of youth interactions with generative software. European policymakers this week introduced the Kids Act proposal, which seeks to prohibit social media for children under 13, limit 13- and 14-year-olds to one hour of daily use, and mandate that AI chatbots remain disabled by default for minors, backed by potential fines of up to 6% of global annual turnover.