Source: Artificial Agency | GlobeNewswire Inc.
Game industry veteran joins executive team to grow commercial capabilities and support studio adoption of generative behavior engine
EDMONTON, Alberta, June 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Artificial Agency, an AI company pioneering generative behavior for gaming, today announced Greg Canessa as its Chief Operating Officer. A seasoned gaming industry veteran for over 25 years, Canessa has previously held senior executive positions at Activision Blizzard, Microsoft Xbox, GSN (a division of Sony), and Google, where he helped build, launch, and market games across mobile, console, PC and cloud platforms. Canessa’s immediate focus will be scaling the company’s commercial capabilities to support growing studio adoption of its flagship technology, an AI-powered generative behavior engine.
Canessa’s hire comes at a pivotal juncture for Artificial Agency. Founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, the company emerged from stealth in July 2024 to bring generative behavior to an industry expected to surpass $300B in revenue by 2027. Last summer, Artificial Agency launched the Alpha version of its behavior engine, empowering developers to add agentic intelligence to any system within a game, creating characters, events, and scenarios that are in tune with the player and each other. Initially available only to select studios as part of Artificial Agency’s pilot program, the company will now focus on scaling the behavior engine’s commercial adoption across studios of all sizes.
“Even though the gaming industry remains a bright spot in the entertainment sector, it creatively feels like it’s hit a ceiling as studios try to balance the desire for brand new concepts with increasingly limited bandwidths and budgets. We founded Artificial Agency with a big vision for how generative behavior could remake the way games are designed and experienced — and save great ideas from ending up on the cutting room floor,” said Brian Tanner, CEO and co-founder of Artificial Agency. “After introducing our engine to the world last year, we’re now focused on moving beyond the pilot phase to work with more studios to bring their games to life in new ways. Greg is a proven industry leader who brings extensive studio experience and personal passion to the Artificial Agency team, and we are excited to have him join us as we embark on our next chapter.”
Prior to joining Artificial Agency, Canessa most recently served as President and Chief Operating Officer at blockchain startup Sequence, which successfully exited to Polygon Labs in Q1 of this year. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, a $200 million ARB initiative to accelerate gaming and entertainment.
“As a lifelong gamer, I was immediately struck by the potential of generative and agentic behavior to introduce novel new game experiences that are immersive, dynamic, and feel alive. As a former studio executive, I recognized the market need for this type of technology to innovate, capture new audiences and sustain engagement,” said Canessa. “While much of the industry is using AI technology to accelerate the status quo, Artificial Agency’s focus is on enabling studios to create breakthrough experiences that will resonate with players. I’m excited to partner with studios to explore this creative space, finding ways to help developers create the next generation of emergent gameplay experiences that I personally can’t wait to play.”
Canessa marks Artificial Agency’s first outside executive hire, and represents the latest in a series of notable milestones. In April, they acquired Reflection Tree, an on-device collaborative planning system for Unreal Engine 5. They also released their first product enhancements for the behavior engine, including new character archetypes, multiplayer compatibility, latent functions, coaching features, and first-class Unity support.
To learn more about the behavior engine and partnering with Artificial Agency, click here.
About Artificial Agency
Artificial Agency is an AI company that is pioneering generative behavior for gaming. Its groundbreaking AI-powered behavior engine integrates runtime decision-making into game mechanics, delivering an experience that feels truly alive. With top AI talent from Google DeepMind, seasoned gaming veterans from elite AAA studios, and backing from leading investors including Radical Ventures and Toyota Ventures, Artificial Agency is poised to redefine the boundaries of gaming and completely reimagine the player experience. To learn more, visit artificial.agency.
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