Cognition acquires Poke in low nine-figure deal

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