For the first time in its century-long history, Disney has elevated technology to the executive table — not merely as infrastructure, but as strategy. By creating a Chief Technology Officer role and filling it with Karandeep Anand, former head of AI chatbot startup Character.AI, the company is acknowledging what the entertainment industry can no longer defer: that artificial intelligence is not a tool waiting in the wings, but a force already reshaping how stories are made, delivered, and experienced. The appointment is less a hiring decision than a philosophical declaration about where Disney