Why the World’s Leading Tech Companies Collaborate with Disney

Why the World's Leading Tech Companies Collaborate with Disney

Some of the world's most influential technology companies - including Adobe, NVIDIA, and Meta - are increasingly turning to Disney to help shape the future of storytelling. As stories extend across Disney Experiences, the company's ability to bring characters and worlds to life and deepen emotional connections with guests makes it a uniquely compelling partner for innovators building what comes next.

At the center of this work is Walt Disney Imagineering, where creative ambition meets emerging technology in service of immersive experiences across parks, cruise ships, and beyond. Whether it's accelerating design pipelines with Adobe Firefly, advancing robotics with NVIDIA, or exploring new forms of guest interaction through Meta's wearable Ray-Bans, each collaboration reflects a shared goal: bringing stories to life in new and meaningful ways.

"We've always talked about 'our product is emotion,'" said Kyle Laughlin, SVP, Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development. "And these types of tools are helping us make that connection even faster."

Adobe Firefly Foundry

The latest example is a collaboration between Imagineering Research & Development and Adobe to bring generative AI into the theme park design process through Adobe Firefly Foundry.

The work on this new tool builds on an already strong relationship. "We have been a long-time user of Adobe Creative Cloud tools for decades," Laughlin said. "We have been early adopters of the Firefly products, and Adobe approached us about a very unique opportunity to become one of the first Adobe Firefly Foundry clients."

The opportunity came with the goal to accelerate creativity without compromising Disney's standards.

"The impetus for the use of Adobe Foundry was because we were looking for a way to speed up our process," Laughlin explained. "Our ability to deliver these experiences and iterate more quickly was a key reason in making that decision."

Adobe Firefly Foundry enables Disney to build custom generative AI models based on its own creative assets - ensuring that outputs remain consistent with the company's storytelling heritage and visual language.

That means Imagineers can move from early sketches to detailed designs faster than ever. "What's most exciting is that it allows months of work to be compressed into days and weeks," Laughlin said.

A Creator-Driven Company

Even as AI becomes more central to the creative process, Disney's philosophy remains unchanged: technology should serve storytelling - and the people behind it.

"We were looking to find a collaborator that could help us do that responsibly and do it in a way that ultimately respected the fact that we are a creator-driven company," Laughlin said. "We are a talent-driven company, and respecting that the creative process has a human as a part of what we do."

That approach shapes how Disney evaluates and builds relationships. In the case of Adobe Firefly Foundry, the underlying model is built using licensed and proprietary assets, then customized using over 70 years of Imagineering work - from concept art to technical designs - creating a Disney-specific creative framework.

The result is a system that enhances, rather than replaces, human creativity.

"The company and its ethos is always 'use technology to support storytelling,'" Laughlin said. "This opportunity is always in support of great storytelling and creators that have a vision for what they want to tell guests."

Moving Faster with Tech Firms

The Adobe collaboration is part of a broader pattern. From NVIDIA to Meta, Disney's collaborations with technology leaders share a common thread: they help Imagineering move faster while maintaining quality.

In robotics, advances in AI have dramatically reduced development timelines. For instance, the BDX droid program was a yearlong process, powered by NVIDIA's simulation framework, Newton. Thanks to the framework established by the BDX droids, when it came time to create the Olaf robotic character, the development timeline was a mere four months.

Due to that rapidly evolving iterative process, the foundation is set for the possibility of populating lands with multiple robotic characters within a franchise interacting with one another at a park.

For instance, at World of Frozen at Disneyland Paris, "you can imagine a robotic Sven, a robotic Snowgie, a robotic set of trolls, so that we can continue to fill Arendelle with all of this texture and life from your favorite characters in the most compelling way possible," Laughlin explained.

These innovations also unlock new kinds of storytelling experiences - like aligning attractions with film releases, such as what was recently accomplished when a brand-new mission featuring Din Djarin and Grogu was introduced in Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run on the same day that Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu was released in theaters.

"I think this is a perfect example of the potential to unlock even more delivery of day-and-date experiences," Laughlin said.

What Disney Offers to Tech Firms

But speed is only part of the equation. For many tech firms, Disney offers something equally compelling: scale and emotional resonance.

"We reach hundreds of millions of people in our theme parks, cruise ships, and experiences around the world," Laughlin said. "That's an incredible audience for those companies to tap into."

At the same time, the connection runs deeper than reach alone.

"It's hard not to be a fan of Disney IP, Disney characters, Disney stories around the world," he added. "We have great collaborators who see business opportunity, but we have great fans that are collaborators who want to work with the stories because there's an emotional connection to them."

That combination - global scale, beloved storytelling, and a clear creative vision - makes Disney a uniquely powerful collaborator.

"I think it is a very cool way to get an idea off the ground," Laughlin said of tech firms introducing new technologies in conjunction with Disney experiences. "You can see and understand what a potential outcome might be when you're using Disney stories and characters."