The 2026 Disney Accelerator class is made up entirely of artificial intelligence companies. All five startups that presented at Disney Accelerator Demo Day on the Walt Disney Studios lot on November 3 build AI: FieldAI, Physical Intelligence, Promise, OpenArt and Simile. We went back through every class we could find since the program started in 2014, and no other year comes close.
The Disney Accelerator pairs growth-stage companies with Disney teams for a few months of projects, ending with Demo Day. Disney says this is the program’s 12th year and that it has worked with more than 60 companies. When we covered the program’s 10th anniversary in 2024, the biggest success stories were Sphero, which built the BB-8 toy after Bob Iger showed the team the droid on his phone and asked, “Can you build this?”, and Epic Games, whose Unreal Engine now runs inside Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
What the 2026 Disney Accelerator Companies Are Working On
FieldAI builds general-purpose robot intelligence. With Disney Experiences Technology and Walt Disney Imagineering R&D, it is exploring robots that support parking operations “across complex terrain and unpredictable weather.” Imagineering is also looking at how FieldAI’s navigation could “inform the future development of character-based robotic experiences in Disney parks,” which lines up with the wave of new robotic characters Disney has promised for its parks and ships.
Physical Intelligence, which goes by Pi, makes AI models that let robots handle many different tasks without being programmed for each one. With Walt Disney Imagineering, it is exploring “repetitive backstage tasks,” starting with handling and arranging 3D glasses for cleaning between shows.
Promise calls itself an AI-native entertainment studio. It worked with Walt Disney Studios on hybrid filmmaking, which mixes live-action production with generative AI tools. Disney says the project looks at how AI can add to the filmmaking toolkit while protecting creative integrity.
OpenArt is an AI-powered creative platform. It is working with Disney Music Group to help creative teams quickly generate and test visual ideas for lyric videos.
Simile builds AI simulations based on real human behavior. Its project is with Walt Disney World, exploring tools that help teams read guest insights and refine ideas earlier in development.
“This year’s cohort brought advanced domain expertise, but even more importantly, grounded every conversation with a clear point of view on how these technologies can work responsibly for people,” said Bonnie Rosen, general manager of the Disney Accelerator. Two members of the 2025 class also returned to Demo Day. Haddy showed 3D-printed set pieces made with Imagineering, the same company that 3D-printed a Jungle Cruise boat prop last year. Animaj showed FlipMove, the AI animation workflow behind Ozzy Fox, its series with Disney Jr., which now has a second season in production.
How Past Disney Accelerator Classes Compare
Here is every class we found, with how many companies were described as AI companies when Disney announced them:
- 2014: 10 companies and no AI. The first class had Sphero, kids’ apps like ChoreMonster and Twigtale, and zombie selfie apps from TYFFON.
- 2015: 10 companies and 2 AI. Imperson let fans chat with movie and TV characters, and StatMuse answered sports questions in plain language. The class also had Open Bionics’ 3D-printed bionic hands and FEM Inc., where Bonnie Rosen worked before she took over the Accelerator.
- 2016: 9 companies and no AI. The class had Hanson Robotics, maker of the lifelike robot Sophia, along with VR studio Jaunt, Atom Tickets and littleBits.
- 2017: 11 companies and 2 tied to AI or machine learning, Hoodline and ReplyYes. The big names were Epic Games and Kahoot!, plus The VOID, the VR company behind the former Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire experience at Disney Springs.
- 2018: 7 companies and 1 AI, Unsupervised. The rest included fitness app Aaptiv, learning app BYJU’s and kids’ ride service HopSkipDrive.
- 2019 and 2020: The program paused, then was delayed again by COVID-19.
- 2021: 8 companies and 2 AI, Holler and robot toy maker Miko. Most of the class was shopping tech like Attentive and Bambuser, plus augmented reality from Illumix and Mojo Vision.
- 2022: 6 companies and 1 AI, Inworld. This was the Web3 year, with Polygon, Flickplay and Lockerverse.
- 2024: 5 companies and 3 AI, AudioShake, ElevenLabs and Promethean AI, alongside Nuro’s driverless delivery vehicles and StatusPro’s VR sports games.
- 2025: 4 companies. Disney mentioned AI when describing Haddy and Animaj, but their main businesses are 3D printing and kids’ animation. DramaBox makes vertical microdramas, and LIMINAL Space showed a 3D Rocket Raccoon chatting with guests.
- 2026: 5 companies and all 5 AI.
So AI is not new to the Accelerator. Disney had an AI character chat company in 2015, years before chatbots went mainstream, and the 2024 class was already more than half AI. What is new is that nothing else made the cut this year. Earlier classes spread out across toys, VR, esports, shopping, Web3 and 3D printing. This year, even the robotics companies are AI companies, selling the brains that run the robots. Three of the five 2026 projects also point straight at the parks, from parking lots to backstage 3D glasses to guest research at Walt Disney World.
For more on how Disney is already using AI, see our story on ESPN and Disney+ testing AI-powered search, and read the full Demo Day recap on The Walt Disney Company’s site.
