Walt Disney on Friday named outsider Karandeep Anand its first chief technology officer, as ​AI and sweeping industry consolidation disrupt the media ‌landscape.

Anand, who most recently served as CEO of generative AI chatbot service Character.AI, will join Disney effective October ​2.

He will report directly to CEO Josh D’Amaro, ​the theme parks veteran who took the ⁠reins from Bob Iger in March.

A number ​of Character.AI’s technical staff are expected to follow Anand ​to Disney, where he will oversee enterprise technology, AI platforms and engineering across the company’s business segments.

Character.AI has been ​under legal scrutiny, including a May lawsuit ​over chatbot impersonation of doctors, a settlement of a wrongful-death suit in ‌January ⁠tied to a teen’s suicide and a Disney cease-and-desist over unauthorized use of its characters in September 2025.

Before Character.AI, Anand was president and chief product ​officer at fintech ​company Brex. ⁠He also held senior roles at Meta’s Facebook and spent 15 years ​at Microsoft, where he helped build ​the ⁠Azure platform.

On Thursday, Disney named insider Adam Smith chairman of its streaming business and created a new television ⁠franchise ​role for Joe Earley, sharpening ​focus on its direct-to-consumer platforms such as Disney+ and Hulu.