source: techcrunch ai: why cognition bought poke: ai personality is becoming a competitive advantage
level: business
cognition, the ai coding startup, has acquired the interaction company of california, maker of the poke assistant, in a deal valued in the low nine figures. poke is known for texting users like a friend, using slang and humor instead of acting like a tool. cognition plans to bring poke's interaction model and personality to its coding agent devin, while poke will use cognition's models and infrastructure to become faster and more reliable.
poke launched in march 2026 and lets users message an ai agent through imessage, sms, telegram, or whatsapp for tasks like travel, health, finance, and scheduling. it exchanged over 100 million messages in three months but struggled with high running costs. in june, it became the first ai agent approved for apple's messages for business platform. cognition co-founder scott wu said the poke team built an agent people love because it is proactive, knows users, and is fun to talk to, which is how working with devin should feel.
the acquisition highlights a growing belief that how ai assistants interact is as valuable as the underlying models. cognition wants devin to feel like a colleague, not software. poke co-founder marvin von hagen said a persistent co-worker that remembers tasks across sessions could help devin orchestrate multiple coding sessions. the two products may eventually combine, with poke becoming more reliable for coding tasks and devin adopting poke's friendly style.
why it matters: ai personality and interaction design are becoming key differentiators, potentially improving user engagement and productivity in coding and other domains.
source: techcrunch ai: why cognition bought poke: ai personality is becoming a competitive advantage