Artificial Agency has appointed Greg Canessa as Chief Operating Officer, its first external executive hire.
He joins the Edmonton-based gaming AI company as it seeks wider studio adoption of its generative behaviour engine, a tool designed to add AI-driven decision-making to in-game systems. His remit focuses on expanding commercial operations as the company moves beyond the product's pilot phase.
Canessa brings more than 25 years of experience in games and digital platforms. He has held senior roles at Activision Blizzard, Microsoft Xbox, GSN, Google and PopCap, and is also known as the founder of Xbox LIVE Arcade, an early digital distribution platform for games.
Before joining Artificial Agency, he was President and Chief Operating Officer at Sequence, a blockchain gaming infrastructure start-up acquired by Polygon Labs earlier this year. He also serves on the board of Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, which manages a USD $200 million initiative focused on gaming and entertainment.
Founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, Artificial Agency emerged from stealth in 2024. It introduced an alpha version of its behaviour engine last year and initially made it available to a select group of studios through a pilot programme.
The company is now looking to broaden that reach. The engine is designed to let studios create game characters, events and scenarios that respond to players and other systems inside a game.
Canessa's arrival comes during a period of expansion. In April, Artificial Agency acquired Reflection Tree, an on-device collaborative planning system for Unreal Engine 5.
It has also updated the behaviour engine with new character archetypes, multiplayer support, latent functions, coaching features and Unity support. Those additions suggest an effort to make the product relevant across different development environments and production models.
Brian Tanner, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Artificial Agency, outlined the company's view of the market in a statement accompanying the appointment.
"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, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Artificial Agency.
He also described the company's next stage of growth.
"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," Tanner said.
Commercial push
Artificial Agency is operating in a games market where companies are experimenting with AI tools across development, live operations and player interaction. Its position is more narrowly focused on behaviour systems inside games rather than content generation alone.
That focus may help explain the decision to recruit an executive with experience in platform launches, publishing and commercial strategy. Canessa has worked across mobile, console, PC and cloud, giving him experience with the varied business models and production structures used by game studios.
Artificial Agency wants to work with studios of different sizes as adoption broadens. That will require a shift from a limited pilot programme to a repeatable commercial model, where operational and business development experience is likely to matter as much as technical credentials.
Canessa outlined his view of the opportunity in comments released alongside the announcement.
"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 Greg Canessa, Chief Operating Officer of Artificial Agency.
He also drew a distinction between different uses of AI in the games sector.
"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 said.