Disney reportedly plans to pay $60 million annually to 66 employees recruited from Character.AI, weeks after cutting hundreds of positions, including technology jobs.
Disney Recruits Character.AI Staff
The hiring comes as Disney reassesses staffing and the use of technology across its operations. In September, Chief Legal Officer Horacio Gutierrez warned employees that Disney’s Legal and Global Affairs organization would become smaller.
According to Business Insider, bankruptcy filings also disclose a $30 million retention pool to incentivize Character.AI employees to stay with the company, part of an estimated $180 million in total compensation and retention spending over the next three years.
Disney previously sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter in September 2025, objecting to the unauthorized use of its characters in user-created chatbots. Disney also raised concerns about inappropriate interactions involving those characters. Character.AI subsequently said the characters identified in the letter had been removed.
Separately, Disney has submitted a $20 million bid involving Character.AI’s technology as part of the startup’s bankruptcy proceedings. The proposed transaction would give Disney a non-exclusive license to specified intellectual property. The Character.AI app, brand, user data, and conversations are excluded from that license.
The recruitment follows Disney’s appointment of former Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand as its first company-wide Chief Technology Officer. Announced in September, Anand’s appointment took effect October 2. He reports directly to CEO Josh D’Amaro and oversees enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product, and engineering.
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