Cognition acquires Poke in low nine-figure deal

Jul 24, 2026

AI coding startup Cognition has acquired the AI assistant Poke for a low nine-figure sum. The deal aims to integrate Poke's friendly, human-like personality into Cognition's coding assistant, Devin, making it feel more like a colleague than a tool. Poke, which has hundreds of thousands of users, will gain access to Cognition's infrastructure to become faster and more reliable, underscoring a trend where AI personality is a key competitive advantage.

Cognition acquisition of Poke

▪Cognition co-founders Scott Wu and Walden Yan were previously angel investors in The Interaction Company of California.
▪The acquisition values Poke's parent company, The Interaction Company of California, in the "low nine figures."
▪AI coding startup Cognition acquired Poke, an AI assistant company.

Conversational AI interaction model

▪The acquisition reflects a growing belief that an AI's interaction style is as valuable as its underlying technology.
▪Poke launched in March 2026 and is used for tasks across travel, health, finance, scheduling, and education.
▪Poke is an AI assistant that interacts with users in a familiar, friendly tone, incorporating slang and humor.

Devin integration plans

▪Future plans include using Poke to orchestrate multiple Devin sessions and help Devin remember tasks across sessions.
▪Cognition's goal is to make its AI coding assistant Devin feel less like software and more like a human colleague.
▪The acquisition is intended to bring Poke's conversational personality to Cognition's AI coding assistant, Devin.

Poke user base metrics

▪Poke is used by hundreds of thousands of people who exchanged over 100 million messages in the last three months.
▪Despite its user base, Poke was expensive to operate and had difficulty achieving profitability.

Apple Messages platform approval

▪In June 2026, Poke became the first AI agent approved to run on Apple’s Messages for Business platform.
▪Poke allows users to interact with its AI agent via iMessage, SMS, Telegram, and WhatsApp in some markets.

Future product development

▪In 2027, Poke will begin using Cognition's SWE-1.7 software engineering model for some tasks.
▪No immediate changes are planned for Poke through the end of 2026, and it will remain on Apple's platform.
▪Poke will use Cognition's models and infrastructure to improve its speed and reliability.