Disney names CTO for the first time as media giant expands tech push

Disney is looking to increase its foothold in the technology space with its latest hire.

The media giant said Friday it hired Karandeep Anand, most recently CEO of Character.AI, effective Oct. 2 as senior executive vice president and chief technology officer. The newly created position in the Mouse House's C-suite will report directly to CEO Josh D'Amaro.

The leadership expansion comes months after D'Amaro took the top post at Disney and emphasized the need to embrace technology to advance all parts of the company.

Disney said Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and artificial intelligence platforms, product and engineering at Disney, and will work across across various tech teams to "further modernize how Disney builds and delivers technology company-wide."

"Karandeep brings a rare mix of experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI, and will be a vital addition to Disney's senior leadership team as we further our three priorities: great storytelling as our North Star, technology in service of creativity, and operating as One Disney," D'Amaro said in Friday's release.

D'Amaro's immediate goal has been to maintain Disney's momentum in its core growth areas -- particularly streaming and parks, which have helped lift the company's earnings in recent quarters.

In March D'Amaro outlined his strategy and focused on the importance of Disney's storytelling and intellectual property to all parts of the business, as well as expanding its concentration in tech to fuel growth. Since then, the CEO has made various moves to show his focus on that initiative.

The company's streaming service, Disney+, has been at the center of such plans. D'Amaro has said Disney is considering a free, ad-supported tier for its Disney+ streaming service as a so-called "front porch" to get more consumers onto the platform.

On Thursday, Disney also named Adam Smith as chairman of its direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment, overseeing the streaming business.

Executives have also teased that streaming and shopping will be integrated on Disney+, and more details are expected to come in the spring. At an investor conference earlier this month, CFO Hugh Johnston called it an "integrated ecosystem" under the Disney+ banner, which would bring together TV and film content with consumer products, Disney's parks and cruises, and interacting with Disney's library of intellectual property in various ways, including gaming.

Anand comes to Disney after overseeing Character.AI, a platform that allows users to create and interact with character-based chatbots. In addition to Anand, Disney is hiring members from Character.AI's technical team.

Disney said Friday that Anand managed Character.AI through a "period of explosive growth, building one of the most engaged consumer-AI audiences in the world, while also making user trust and safety a priority at the platform." Anand has also held positions at financial tech company Brex and Meta's Facebook.

Disney has clashed with the company before. Last year, Disney sent a cease and desist letter to the startup as a warning to stop using its copyrighted characters without authorization. Character.AI told CNBC it removed the mentioned characters in Disney's letter.

The spokesperson acknowledged at the time that while some characters on its platform are completely original creations, others are "inspired by existing characters that people love."