Disney Hires Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand, With Technical Team Expected to Join

Character.AI says its app remains live and online as CEO Karandeep Anand moves to Disney, where members of the company’s technical team are expected to join him. The transition gives Disney a new technology chief while leaving Character.AI’s immediate service available to its community.

Character.AI announced September 18 that Anand is joining Disney as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, a newly created role. The company said Anand expects to be joined by members of Character.AI’s technical team, who will build on Disney’s technology capabilities and help connect fans with its stories and characters in new ways.

A fan-focused mandate at Disney

The announcement frames Anand’s new job around Disney’s technology capabilities and its relationship with fans. Character.AI says the incoming group will help people engage with Disney stories and characters in new ways. It does not announce a specific product, integration, or service tied to the move.

The Character.AI tools cited in the announcement

• Books, which Character.AI lists as part of its entertainment platform.
• Series, described by the company as studio-made microdramas.
• Comics, which Character.AI says transforms stories for user creativity.

The app stays up, while the transition takes shape

Character.AI presented its product as an entertainment and fandom platform for interactions with characters, stories, and communities. That description gives the Disney assignment a clear thematic overlap: both companies are being linked through character-led entertainment rather than through a disclosed technical product plan.

Character.AI has not named a successor to Anand or identified the technical-team members expected to join him at Disney, leaving its post-transition leadership structure unresolved. The company says the app remains online and that it will share more information.