Company’s Instinct platform uses behavioral simulation to help enterprises anticipate customers engagement within digital products and experiences before launch

SAN FRANCISCO and TOKYO, Oct. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Primitive Labs, an AI research and product company developing models of human behavior, announced today an investment from Sony Innovation Fund. The funding continues the company’s behavioral modeling research and the development of Instinct, an enterprise platform for companies to model their customers and simulate their interactions before launch.

AI has accelerated the capacity to build and operate software autonomously; however, one layer is overlooked. Primitive Labs is building an architecture for human behavior to solve this missing layer. Its research centers on building models that represent how people form goals, change beliefs, and make decisions. Under pressures like uncertainty or time, people will either persist or abandon their objectives. Primitive Labs is creating the foundation for AI systems to be able to reason human behavior, rather than simply predicting the next action.

Instinct brings this research into the product development cycle. With an organization’s user research, product analytics, and behavioral data, the platform creates simulated customer populations to navigate digital experiences. Teams across product, design, research can use the simulations to examine likely customer outcomes. Instinct helps customers de-risk critical user funnels by identifying points of abandonment, while comparing how different audiences respond, before committing to a launch or major product decision.

“The barrier to building software is dropping, but the expectations of users hasn’t changed,” said Rohit Talluri, CEO and Co-Founder of Primitive Labs. “We think understanding people should be a capability of the technology itself, something we can train and test, rather than a separate exercise trying to keep up with every release. Companies should be able to build with a model of the people they serve from the beginning.”

“As enterprises become more agentic, one of the core areas that our team has been evaluating is the customer journey,” said Atsushi Kitagawa, Managing Director-US, Sony Ventures. “Primitive Labs is taking a compelling research-driven approach to modeling human behavior, with the potential to help enterprises better anticipate how customers will respond to digital experiences. We’re excited by the opportunity ahead and believe Rohit and the team have the technical expertise and commercial experience to execute on this vision.”

Modeling How People Make Decisions

Primitive Labs is working with partners across retail, e-commerce, media and entertainment, advertising, and gaming. These engagements focus on high-value journeys such as onboarding, account creation, subscription, and checkout, including how those experiences may need to change for different customer segments or new markets.

Across their research, the company has generated hundreds of thousands of simulated behavioral trajectories across hundreds of customer populations and thousands of digital environments, creating a growing dataset used to train and improve the fidelity of its behavioral models.

Primitive Labs sees longer-term opportunities in healthcare and life sciences, financial services, travel, marketplaces, and other sectors where understanding how people make decisions is central to the customer experience.

Primitive Labs was founded in 2026 by Rohit Talluri (CEO), Jean Farmer (CTO), and Gabriel Fong (COO), who first worked together at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Talluri later worked in Amazon’s Artificial General Intelligence Autonomy Lab, supporting computer-use agent initiatives. Farmer worked in Amazon AGI and supported the Amazon Nova launches. The broader team brings professional and academic experience from Amazon, Google, Harvard, MIT, and the University of Washington.

Primitive Labs is also backed by a16z speedrun, Andreessen Horowitz’s early-stage startup program, and is a member of its SR007 cohort.

“There’s a real difference between asking AI to act like a person and building models of how people actually behave,” said Josh Lu, Investment Partner at Andreessen Horowitz for a16z speedrun. “We backed Rohit, Jean, and Gabe because they uniquely have both the AI research and commercial expertise to build a new class of behavioral models for enterprises. As building software becomes easier, we believe understanding the people you’re building for will be as essential as the code itself. Instinct is the beginning of the shift by bringing a model of the customer into the development process. It will shape how products get built and more importantly, what teams decide is worth building in the first place.”

About Primitive Labs

Primitive Labs is an AI research and product company developing models of human behavior. The company brings together the human behavior architecture with training systems to apply those models in software. Its first product, Instinct, enables enterprises to model customer populations and simulate how they interact with digital experiences before launch. Primitive Labs’ mission is to make human behavior a first-class primitive in software development. Founded in 2026 and headquartered in San Francisco, Primitive Labs is backed by a16z speedrun, Sony Innovation Fund, Olive Tree Capital, Pack Ventures, and technology leaders with backgrounds spanning OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Amazon, and Uber.

Learn more at primitivelabs.ai.

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Three-year agreement applies a single set of coded data quality checks across WRHN sites as the merged organization integrates

KITCHENER, ON, Oct. 5, 2026 /CNW/ – Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN) has signed a three-year agreement to extend the 3terra Data Quality Assist (DQA) platform across its full network, giving Health Information Management and Decision Support teams a consistent view of coded data quality at every site.

WRHN was formed on April 1, 2025 through the merger of Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital. The WRHN @ Midtown site has used DQA since 2019. The new agreement extends the platform to the rest of the network, standardizing how coding accuracy and data quality are monitored across the combined organization.

Hospital mergers change coding workflows, information systems and teams, conditions that put coded data quality at risk at any organization. Because coded data drives patient-based funding and the performance reporting leadership relies on, WRHN is applying a single set of quality checks across all sites from the outset, giving its teams visibility into issues as they emerge rather than after they have reached funding or reporting.

Consistent coded data across sites also supports network-level analysis. WRHN’s Decision Support team can compare activity, monitor performance, and build reporting on the same verified foundation, without reconciling different data quality practices inherited from two organizations. DQA is used by more than 70% of Ontario hospitals funded under Health System Funding Reform (HSFR), so the checks now applied across WRHN reflect a standard already in place across the province.

“Bringing our sites onto one data quality standard is part of building one organization. Our teams shouldn’t have to reconcile two inherited approaches to know the data is right — this gives everyone at WRHN the same verified foundation from day one.” – Anh Tran, Director, Decision Support & Business Intelligence, Waterloo Regional Health Network

“A merger touches nearly every process that produces coded data. WRHN’s decision to apply one standard across the whole network means their teams can identify issues as they happen and act on them, at the point where reliable data matters most.” – Iain Robinson, CEO, 3terra

About Waterloo Regional Health Network: Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN, pronounced wren) represents the merger of two Hospitals into a single, integrated healthcare organization. Built on over 90 years of partnership, WRHN is home to seven regional programs and comprehensive healthcare services to meet the current and emerging needs in Waterloo-Wellington and beyond. WRHN is redefining the healthcare experience through collaboration and innovation, addressing barriers to access, advancing care delivery, and setting new standards in compassionate, empowered, community-driven healthcare. At WRHN, we provide outstanding care that’s personal, seamless, and reimagined.

About 3terra: For more than two decades, 3terra has been a trusted analytics partner to Canadian hospitals, with deep expertise in the data quality and analytical demands unique to the Canadian health system. The DQA platform is purpose-built for the realities of hospital operations, helping health information management and decision support teams ensure data accuracy, drive improvement initiatives, and equip leadership with the insights needed to act. For more information, visit www.3terra.com or contact info@3terra.com.

SOURCE 3terra

Seasoned global finance leader brings more than 25 years of experience leading complex businesses through growth and transformation

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Asurion, a global leader in technology protection and support, today announced that Baris Oran has been named Chief Financial Officer, effective October 15, 2026. Oran will join Asurion’s Executive Committee and report to Chief Executive Officer Guru Gowrappan.

Oran brings more than 25 years of global finance and leadership experience across technology, logistics and manufacturing. He most recently served as CFO of Amrize and previously spent nearly five years as CFO of GXO Logistics, where he helped establish the Finance organization following its spin-off from XPO Logistics and supported the company’s growth as an independent public company. Earlier, Oran served as CFO of Sabancı Group and Kordsa. He brings deep experience in capital allocation, M&A, capital markets and value creation.

“Baris has a strong track record of leading Finance organizations through significant growth and transformation,” said Guru Gowrappan, CEO of Asurion. “He brings the financial discipline you expect from a CFO, but also thinks like an operator – connecting strategy, investment and execution to create long-term value. I’m excited to have him on the team as we build on Asurion’s strong foundation and invest behind our vision to become the trusted technology partner.”

“Asurion has a strong foundation, trusted partnerships and significant opportunity ahead,” said Oran. “I’m excited to join the company and partner with Guru, the leadership team and the Finance organization to invest behind our biggest opportunities and drive sustainable long-term growth.”

Oran succeeds Andrea Magyera, who announced in June her decision to step down after 17 years with Asurion. Magyera will transition to Senior Advisor to support a smooth leadership transition and provide strategic guidance.

“Andrea has played a significant role in shaping our strategy, executing key M&A and strategic initiatives, strengthening our capital structure and driving value creation across the business,” Gowrappan said. “We are grateful for her leadership and contributions to Asurion as well as her commitment to ensuring a thoughtful and seamless transition.”

About Asurion
Asurion is the leading global tech care company providing protection, repair, replacement, and 24/7 support for all the technology in consumers’ lives. With thousands of experts ready to help whenever and wherever, Asurion proudly cares for millions of customers with thousands of different devices. Asurion provides world-class customer experiences that keep tech running, with seamless, intelligent care for nearly every connected device in the home, from phones to major appliances and everything in between. Asurion is ready to help however you need it — online, over the phone, in your neighborhood, or even at your doorstep. We are a partner to the largest enterprise brands, serving over 100 clients. For more information, visit asurion.com.

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