As Disney looks to the future of its theme parks, the company is planning major expansions in Florida and long-term agreements with the local government in California, among other projects. Another priority for Disney is integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the park experience, as some of its executives just shared in detail following previous remarks.
AI tools will be introduced to guest-facing Disney vacation planning resources, and are already in use behind the scenes as Disney’s teams build new experiences for the parks. Disney shared specific examples of its AI plans with Mickey Visit. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including Disney World changes this month and fans’ favorite pools at hotels near Disneyland.
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Disney’s AI Initiative Across Entire Company
Disney leadership recently invited Mickey Visit to preview changes related to AI coming to Disneyland Resort in California and Walt Disney World in Florida. We heard from executives representing digital experience, customer experience, and pricing and product development teams.
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The specific examples these leaders shared for Disney’s AI plans, which we map out below, echo the recent sentiment of new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro. In May 2026, during a company quarterly earnings presentation, D’Amaro spoke of Disney’s AI priorities.
“We look at advanced technology, including AI, as a meaningful, long-term opportunity for us at Disney,” D’Amaro said during the call. “At the same time, we’re committed to implementing AI in a way that keeps human creativity at the center of everything that we do, and, of course, respects creators and the tremendous value of our own intellectual property.”
In that same call, D’Amaro and Disney CFO Hugh Johnston went on to share their intentions for AI in theme park vacations, film studio technology, and workforce scheduling management, but these ideas were described with broad strokes, as big-picture topics, rather than as specific plans.
By comparison, executives at the recent preview presentation Mickey Visit attended shared concrete examples of the ways AI is already in place at Disney and action items for how it will continue to be used soon.
See more of D’Amaro and Johnston’s remarks from their big-picture call, along with our commentary, here. For the remainder of this article, we will focus on specific announcements Disney has shared since then, including those from the presentation we attended in person.
Intuitive Search Functions for Rides, Menus, and Park Info
The search engines in the Disneyland Resort app and Disney World’s My Disney Experience app currently function on a basic level that more intuitive search engines, such as Google, have evolved past.
When a guest uses a Disney mobile app to search for any given term, the results mostly only populate with items that contain those specific words in their formal names or page titles. For example, if a guest searches “pizza,” the search engine populates with Pizzafari at Disney’s Animal Kingdom because that restaurant contains the word “pizza” in its name, but it doesn’t populate with Pinocchio Village Haus at Magic Kingdom, despite pizza being that restaurant’s specialty.
The updated search functionality would intuitively recommend certain results based on what the guest is looking for, even if the exact word they searched for isn’t part of the result’s actual name.
This functionality will also extend to rides and attractions. At the presentation we attended, executives used an example of a guest searching for the word “space,” and one of the results would be Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, because the setting of that indoor roller coaster is outer space. This may be especially helpful if guests are trying to find a ride they’ve heard of or seen advertised, but don’t know the exact name of the attraction.
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As Disney rolls out this more intuitive search functionality, guests will be able to ask questions about park information even if they aren’t familiar with Disney’s exact terminology. For instance, the question “When does EPCOT open?” does not currently yield any helpful results in Disney’s app. All eight of the results shown have nothing to do with EPCOT’s park hours. Guests must include the words “park hours” in their search query to find the page titled with that information. In the future, this will no longer be the case.
These changes are among other new features coming to Disney mobile apps, including Spanish translations for the first time.
Using AI to Build Disney Characters
Walt Disney World recently debuted a statue of Grumpy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at a section of Disney’s Magnolia Golf Course known as Grumpy’s Gauntlet.
At hole 14, Grumpy stands in a typically disgruntled pose, breaking his golf club in frustration. A sign next to him reads, “Mark my words … there’s trouble a-brewin’!”
Walt Disney Imagineering’s research and development team leveraged AI to build the Grumpy’s Gauntlet statue. First, artists digitally sculpted the character. Then, a robotic fabrication arm used the digital file to carve the figure from a marble slab over several days. From there, humans took the machine’s sculpture and added finer details.
This differs from some of the more traditional mediums of character sculptures in Disney parks, such as plastic or bronze.
Help Families Choose Their Hotel
On Disney’s websites, AI will be integrated into how guests choose their hotel.
Walt Disney World boasts over 30 resort hotels. While Disney already categorizes hotels by different price tiers and in geographic zones across the Disney World property, navigating the choices can still be overwhelming, even for repeat guests.
Visitors will soon be able to use an AI-driven search engine to input their hotel preferences to find a selection that fits what they’re looking for. Spitballing here, a guest might want a hotel that has a pool with a slide. Currently, the search for “hotel with slide at pool” on DisneyWorld.com includes Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort as a result. All-Star Sports doesn’t have a slide at any of its pools, but its website landing page may include the words “hotel” or “slide” in some fashion, so it shows up, anyway.
In the future, guests will be able to ask follow-up questions about hotel selections, too. During the presentation Mickey Visit attended, Disney executives shared an example of a guest asking how long it would take to get from their hotel to EPCOT on the monorail. There’s currently no search designed for that type of question.
AI in Disney PhotoPass Editing
Disney PhotoPass has been utilizing tools to add imagery to guests’ vacation photos and videos for years. These include Magic Shots, which insert cartoon characters into posed photos, and PhotoPass Lenses, Disney’s term for Snapchat-esque filters.
Disney is now using AI for the opposite purpose of removing imagery from photos rather than adding to them.
For example, earlier this year, Disney repainted Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom. While the painting schedule was intentionally arranged to minimize visual impacts, guests visiting during the morning hours still had a crane in the background of their family photos in front of the castle. Disney used AI to remove the crane from these photos, presenting guests with an unobstructed skyline behind them instead.
This capability could extend to other construction-related visual intrusions, as Disneyland and Walt Disney World currently have a ton of construction projects underway with many new rides planned. I could also see it being used to remove skywriting or maybe even storm clouds, depending on how far Disney would push the feature.
See more changes coming to Disney theme park mobile apps and how Disney’s CEO wants to utilize AI across the company.
Featured image photo via @bioreconstruct on X
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