The Walt Disney Company drastically changed how they took questions from shareholders during the company’s annual shareholder meeting on April 3rd.
Mickey Mouse in The Prince and the Pauper (1990), Walt Disney Animation
During the company’s livestream of the event, what appeared to be an AI voiceover explained the change, “In the answer and question portion of the meeting your questions were submitted prior to the meeting and today in the virtual meeting platform.”
This AI voiceover then read a series of questions to which Bob Iger answered them. It’s unclear if these questions were even submitted by shareholders or crafted by Disney’s press relations teams. It’s also unclear if Disney CEO Bob Iger, who answered the various questions, actually answered them live or had already pre-recorded the answers. Iger was not shown on camera answering the questions.
Bob Iger attend the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood CA on Thursday, April 27, 2023.
(Photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)
READ: Disney CEO Bob Iger Says It Is Not The Company’s Job “To Advance Any Kind Of Agenda”
The company previously had shareholders call in and identified them by name as well as where they were calling in from. The shareholders then asked their questions live to Bob Iger to which he answered them live.
In 2023 the shareholder Q&A portion of the meeting also took over 30 minutes or nearly half of the entire meeting. This year, Iger spent around 10 minutes on the shareholder question and answer portion of the meeting.
Similarly, in 2022 the Q&A portion took around 30 minutes of an hour and a half meeting. It also had shareholders call in and identified them by name and the location from where they were calling in from.
Mickey walks down Main Street USA at Disneyland. (Credit: Mortimer Productions)
Pop culture analyst WDW Pro reacted to this new way of answering shareholder questions during an appearance on Valliant Renegade’s livestream covering the shareholder meeting saying, “Joe Biden has more courage in front of the press than [Bob Iger]. It’s true. This man took pre-recorded AI questions from an AI moderator that he already knew and had the answers printed out in front of him. This is a shame upon the company. It is humiliating to the company.”
“I don’t care what the headlines say,” he continued. “Switching from having the testicular fortitude to take call-ins from shareholders to this, is absolute utter nonsense. This man has no clothes. He is not to be trusted and everything that’s happened with Nelson Peltz and everything leading up to right now; we have now entered a clown world circus show. This is ridiculous and it is not adult-like. This is childish behavior. Utterly stupid. For shareholders I’m just incensed. You do not have a voice with this company.”
Emperor Palpatine in a scene from “STAR WARS: THE BAD BATCH”, season 3 exclusively on Disney+. ©.
He later added, “What was just done to [Nelson Peltz] and the other shareholders is an abomination. I don’t speak this way normally. I don’t know how long shareholders have had the opportunity to call in and speak to Bob Iger or to any CEO. But the idea that you are going to switch that to artificial intelligence, moderated by an AI voice, and that you are going to pretend that’s on a timer, and the CEO has all of the questions in front of him. He already knows. It’s probably prepared. That is utter nonsense. That is total nonsense.”
As of writing, Disney stock has declined over 2% today.
A screenshot of Disney’s stock price via The Walt Disney Company’s website
What do you make of The Walt Disney Company appearing to switch to AI prerecorded shareholder questions compared to a live call-in?
