Character.AI, the fast-growing Google-backed chatbot company, has named Karandeep Anand as its new CEO. Anand, formerly the VP of Business Products at Meta, steps into the role during a critical chapter for the company, which boasts tens of millions of monthly active users.
Anand isn’t entirely new to Character.AI — he had already been serving as a board advisor. Now, he’s taking the reins as the company navigates dual challenges: scaling up its platform while addressing serious safety concerns. In recent months, Character.AI has come under scrutiny due to a lawsuit involving a tragic incident in which one of its bots allegedly contributed to the death of a 14-year-old boy in Florida. In response, the company has rolled out several new safety features.
Anand brings a deep well of experience to the role. At Meta, he oversaw business tools used by billions. Before that, he led product management at Microsoft’s Azure cloud division and more recently served as president of fintech firm Brex.
A Leadership Shift After Google’s Acquisition Move
Anand takes over less than a year after Character.AI co-founder and then-CEO Noam Shazeer was hired by Google. Shazeer, who had been a key leader of AI research at Google before founding Character.AI, was part of a broader collaboration that saw Google sign a non-exclusive deal to access Character.AI’s technology.
That partnership has since attracted attention from U.S. regulators investigating potential antitrust issues. It’s one of several recent high-profile “reverse acquihire” deals — another being Microsoft’s relationship with Inflection.AI — now under scrutiny for potentially stifling competition in the AI startup space.
Character.AI has raised more than $150 million in funding, primarily from Andreessen Horowitz.
What’s Next for Character.AI
In a blog post, Anand acknowledged the need to strike a better balance between safety and user experience. While reaffirming the company’s commitment to user protection, he also admitted that the app’s current filters “too often block content that’s completely harmless.”
Looking ahead, Anand says his top priorities include refining those filters, upgrading the quality of Character.AI’s models, enhancing memory features for a more personalized experience, and boosting transparency around how decisions are made on the platform. He hinted that users can expect several of these changes to roll out within the next 60 days.
While Character.AI is often grouped with other productivity or enterprise-focused AI startups, its niche is clear: entertainment. And it’s a growing one. According to Sensor Tower, 66% of the platform’s users in 2024 were between 18 and 24 years old, and 72% were women — a demographic that continues to drive the surprising boom in AI-driven conversational entertainment.
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