Why Adobe, NVIDIA and Meta Are Lining Up to Build With Disney Imagineering

Walt Disney Imagineering is collaborating with Adobe, NVIDIA and Meta to accelerate immersive storytelling — from generative design with Adobe Firefly Foundry to AI-driven robotics that cut the Olaf robot's development to four months. Imagineering R&D's Kyle Laughlin explains why tech giants see Disney as a uniquely powerful partner.

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. At the center sits Walt Disney Imagineering, where creative ambition meets emerging tech in service of immersive experiences across parks, cruise ships and beyond.

Key Details

Partners: Adobe (Firefly Foundry), NVIDIA (robotics), Meta (wearable Ray-Bans)
Leading the Work: Kyle Laughlin, SVP, Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development
Robotics Leap: The BDX droid program took a year; the Olaf robot followed in just four months
Day-and-Date: A Din Djarin and Grogu mission launched in Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run the same day The Mandalorian and Grogu hit theaters

Whether it's accelerating design pipelines with Adobe Firefly, advancing robotics with NVIDIA, or exploring new guest interactions through Meta's wearables, 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 of Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development. "And these types of tools are helping us make that connection even faster."

Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development exploring new technology for Disney experiences — Imagineering R&D sits at the intersection of creative ambition and emerging technology.

Adobe Firefly Foundry Speeds the Design Pipeline

The latest example is a collaboration between Imagineering R&D and Adobe to bring generative AI into the theme park design process through Adobe Firefly Foundry. It builds on a decades-long relationship — Disney has been an Adobe Creative Cloud user for years and an early adopter of Firefly, which led Adobe to invite the company to become one of its first Firefly Foundry clients.

Adobe Firefly Foundry generative AI tools used in Disney theme park design

Firefly Foundry lets Disney build custom generative AI models trained on its own creative assets, ensuring outputs stay consistent with the company's storytelling heritage and visual language. The payoff is speed: "What's most exciting is that it allows months of work to be compressed into days and weeks," Laughlin said, letting Imagineers move from early sketches to detailed designs faster than ever.

A Creator-Driven Company

Even as AI becomes more central, Disney's philosophy is unchanged — technology should serve storytelling and the people behind it. "We were looking to find a collaborator that could help us do that responsibly... respecting the fact that we are a creator-driven company," Laughlin said. In the case of Firefly Foundry, the underlying model is built from licensed and proprietary assets, then customized using more than 70 years of Imagineering work — from concept art to technical designs — to create a Disney-specific creative framework that enhances rather than replaces human creativity.

Robotics, NVIDIA, and Lands Full of Characters

The pattern extends to robotics, where AI has dramatically compressed development timelines. The BDX droid program was a yearlong effort powered by NVIDIA's simulation framework, Newton. Thanks to that foundation, the Olaf robotic character was developed in a mere four months.

A Disney robotic character developed using NVIDIA's Newton simulation framework — NVIDIA's Newton framework helped cut robotic character development from a year to months.

That speed sets the stage for lands populated by multiple robotic characters interacting with one another. At World of Frozen at Disneyland Paris, Laughlin imagines "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." The same agility unlocks day-and-date storytelling — like the brand-new Din Djarin and Grogu mission introduced in Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run on the same day Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opened in theaters.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run attraction tied to a Star Wars film release

What Disney Offers Tech Firms

Speed is only half the equation. For many tech firms, Disney offers scale and emotional resonance. "We reach hundreds of millions of people in our theme parks, cruise ships, and experiences around the world," Laughlin said — an enormous audience, paired with beloved IP. "It's hard not to be a fan of Disney IP, Disney characters, Disney stories around the world." That combination of global scale, beloved storytelling and clear creative vision, he argues, makes Disney a uniquely powerful collaborator — and a vivid way for tech companies to see what their newest tools can really do.