{"id":3491298,"date":"2026-07-24T18:07:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/24\/why-cognition-acquired-poke-ai-character-is-increasingly-a-competitive-edge\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T18:07:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:07:32","slug":"why-cognition-acquired-poke-ai-character-is-increasingly-a-competitive-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/24\/why-cognition-acquired-poke-ai-character-is-increasingly-a-competitive-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Cognition acquired Poke: AI character is increasingly a competitive edge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Poke, the AI companion you chat with like a buddy, is gearing up for its next significant advancement. The organization behind this assistant, The Interaction Company of California, has been acquired by AI coding startup Cognition in a transaction that values the startup at \u201clow nine figures.\u201d<\/p>\n

This agreement will integrate Poke\u2019s interaction style and character into Cognition\u2019s coding assistant Devin. In turn, Poke will leverage Cognition\u2019s frameworks and models to enhance its speed and dependability, according to Cognition.<\/p>\n

What draws consumers \u2014 and now its purchaser \u2014 to Poke is its way of interacting with user inquiries. Rather than acting merely as a tool, Poke communicates in a friendly manner, responding as a friend and even weaving in slang and humor. This could bring added value to Devin\u2019s coding capabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou likely prefer co-workers with personality over those that feel robotic,\u201d Interaction Company co-founder Marvin von Hagen mentioned in a TechCrunch interview, where he also disclosed the acquisition\u2019s value. \u201cWhen your co-workers are software engineers, they can share jokes, and that proves enjoyable and entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

The acquisition highlights a rising conviction that the manner in which AI assistants interact with users will become as significant as the foundational models that drive them. Cognition aims to transform Devin from mere software into a true colleague.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Interaction team has developed an agent that users adore: it\u2019s proactive, it understands you, and it\u2019s enjoyable to converse with. This is precisely how working with Devin should feel, and now we can build it collaboratively,\u201d stated Cognition co-founder Scott Wu in a blog entry.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that both he and Cognition co-founder Walden Yan had invested as angel investors in the company that developed Poke.<\/p>\n

First released in March 2026, Poke enables users to interact with its AI agent via their preferred messaging platform, whether iMessage, SMS, Telegram, or WhatsApp in certain regions. Users turn to Poke for a range of tasks across areas such as travel, health, finance, scheduling, and learning.<\/p>\n

Von Hagen highlighted that productivity tasks such as managing emails, reminders, and to-do lists rank among Poke\u2019s most frequent applications.<\/p>\n

Image Credits:<\/strong>Poke\/The Interaction Company of California<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to Cognition, Poke users sent over 100 million messages through the platform in the last three months. However, despite serving hundreds of thousands of users, Poke had been costly to operate, which made profitability challenging, von Hagen noted.<\/p>\n

In June, Poke achieved a milestone by becoming the first AI agent authorized to operate on Apple\u2019s Messages for Business platform, which provides a standardized method for businesses to manage customer communications within Apple\u2019s Messages app.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, no immediate changes are expected for Poke until the year’s end, as stated. Poke intends to continue on Apple\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n

However, in the coming year, the team will explore how both Poke and Devin can advance, with Poke utilizing Cognition\u2019s latest software engineering model SWE-1.7 for certain tasks. The complete integration of both products remains a possibility as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in the long run that Poke can enhance reliability in coordinating all these coding [tasks]\u2026 and concurrently, Devin could evolve to be more like Poke,\u201d von Hagen remarked. \u201cAt present, Devin can only handle one pull request at a time\u2026 I see considerable value in allowing Poke to manage various Devin sessions.\u201d Moreover, Poke could assist Devin in recalling tasks across different sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a consistent co-worker would be beneficial,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n

Poke, the AI companion you chat with like a buddy, is gearing up for its next significant advancement. The organization behind this assistant, The Interaction Company of California, has been acquired by AI coding startup Cognition in a transaction that values the startup at \u201clow nine figures.\u201d<\/p>\n

This agreement will integrate Poke\u2019s interaction style and character into Cognition\u2019s coding assistant Devin. In turn, Poke will leverage Cognition\u2019s frameworks and models to enhance its speed and dependability, according to Cognition.<\/p>\n

What draws consumers \u2014 and now its purchaser \u2014 to Poke is its way of interacting with user inquiries. Rather than acting merely as a tool, Poke communicates in a friendly manner, responding as a friend and even weaving in slang and humor. This could bring added value to Devin\u2019s coding capabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou likely prefer co-workers with personality over those that feel robotic,\u201d Interaction Company co-founder Marvin von Hagen mentioned in a TechCrunch interview, where he also disclosed the acquisition\u2019s value. \u201cWhen your co-workers are software engineers, they can share jokes, and that proves enjoyable and entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

The acquisition highlights a rising conviction that the manner in which AI assistants interact with users will become as significant as the foundational models that drive them. Cognition aims to transform Devin from mere software into a true colleague.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Interaction team has developed an agent that users adore: it\u2019s proactive, it understands you, and it\u2019s enjoyable to converse with. This is precisely how working with Devin should feel, and now we can build it collaboratively,\u201d stated Cognition co-founder Scott Wu in a blog entry.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that both he and Cognition co-founder Walden Yan had invested as angel investors in the company that developed Poke.<\/p>\n

First released in March 2026, Poke enables users to interact with its AI agent via their preferred messaging platform, whether iMessage, SMS, Telegram, or WhatsApp in certain regions. Users turn to Poke for a range of tasks across areas such as travel, health, finance, scheduling, and learning.<\/p>\n

Von Hagen highlighted that productivity tasks such as managing emails, reminders, and to-do lists rank among Poke\u2019s most frequent applications.<\/p>\n

Image Credits:<\/strong>Poke\/The Interaction Company of California<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to Cognition, Poke users sent over 100 million messages through the platform in the last three months. However, despite serving hundreds of thousands of users, Poke had been costly to operate, which made profitability challenging, von Hagen noted.<\/p>\n

In June, Poke achieved a milestone by becoming the first AI agent authorized to operate on Apple\u2019s Messages for Business platform, which provides a standardized method for businesses to manage customer communications within Apple\u2019s Messages app.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, no immediate changes are expected for Poke until the year’s end, as stated. Poke intends to continue on Apple\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n

However, in the coming year, the team will explore how both Poke and Devin can advance, with Poke utilizing Cognition\u2019s latest software engineering model SWE-1.7 for certain tasks. The complete integration of both products remains a possibility as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in the long run that Poke can enhance reliability in coordinating all these coding [tasks]\u2026 and concurrently, Devin could evolve to be more like Poke,\u201d von Hagen remarked. \u201cAt present, Devin can only handle one pull request at a time\u2026 I see considerable value in allowing Poke to manage various Devin sessions.\u201d Moreover, Poke could assist Devin in recalling tasks across different sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a consistent co-worker would be beneficial,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3491299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3491298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3491298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3491298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3491298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3491299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3491298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3491298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3491298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}