Poke, an artificial intelligence assistant designed for conversational interaction, is embarking on a significant new phase. Its parent company, The Interaction Company of California, has been acquired by the AI coding startup Cognition in a transaction reportedly valued in the ‘low nine figures’.
This acquisition is set to integrate Poke's distinctive interaction model and personality into Cognition's coding assistant, Devin. Conversely, Poke is poised to leverage Cognition's advanced models and infrastructure, aiming for enhanced speed and reliability, according to Cognition.
Poke's appeal to users, and now to its acquirer, lies in its unique approach to user engagement. Unlike conventional tools, Poke interacts with users in a familiar, conversational style, akin to a friend, often incorporating slang and humor. This distinctive characteristic is seen as a potential valuable enhancement for Devin's coding capabilities.
“You probably prefer it if you have co-workers that have personality, rather than if you have co-workers that are just robots,” stated Marvin von Hagen, co-founder of The Interaction Company, during an interview with TechCrunch, where he also verified the acquisition's valuation. He further elaborated, “When you have co-workers that are also software engineers, they can also make a joke. And you’ll find it funny and enjoyable.”
This acquisition highlights an increasing conviction within the industry: the manner in which AI assistants engage with users is becoming as crucial as the sophisticated models that power them. Cognition's objective is to transform Devin from a mere software utility into a more collaborative colleague.
“The Interaction team has built an agent that people love: it’s proactive, it knows you, and it’s fun to talk to. That’s exactly how working with Devin should feel, and now we get to build it together,” commented Scott Wu, Cognition co-founder, in a recent blog post.
Wu also disclosed that both he and fellow Cognition co-founder Walden Yan had previously served as angel investors for the company responsible for Poke.
Launched in March 2026, Poke facilitates user interaction with its AI agent across various preferred messaging platforms, including iMessage, SMS, Telegram, and, where available, WhatsApp. Its utility spans a diverse range of tasks in sectors such as travel, health, finance, scheduling, and education.
Von Hagen highlighted that productivity-focused tasks, such as email management, setting reminders, and organizing to-do lists, represented some of Poke’s most frequently utilized applications.
In the last quarter, Poke users collectively exchanged over 100 million messages on the platform, as reported by Cognition. However, despite its adoption by hundreds of thousands, the operational costs of Poke were substantial, hindering its path to profitability, according to von Hagen.
Notably, in June, Poke achieved a milestone by becoming the inaugural AI agent sanctioned for deployment on Apple’s Messages for Business platform, a service designed to offer companies a standardized system for managing customer interactions within the Apple Messages application.
For the remainder of the current year, no immediate changes are anticipated for Poke, which intends to continue its presence on Apple’s platform.
Looking ahead to next year, the teams will explore synergistic improvements for both Poke and Devin. This will involve Poke utilizing Cognition’s advanced software engineering model, SWE-1.7, for specific functionalities. The complete integration of both products also remains a possibility.
“I think in the long term Poke can be more reliable with orchestrating all these coding [tasks]…and, at the same time, Devin could become more like Poke,” von Hagen articulated. He elaborated, “Like right now, Devin can only do one PR — pull request — at a time…I think there’s a lot of value in having Poke orchestrate different Devin sessions.” Furthermore, Poke holds the potential to enable Devin to retain context across multiple sessions.
“It would be good to have a persistent co-worker,” he concluded.
The Editorial Staff at AIChief is a team of professional content writers with extensive experience in AI and marketing. Founded in 2025, AIChief has quickly grown into the largest free AI resource hub in the industry.