Cognition acquires AI assistant Poke to bring personality to coding agent Devin

Cognition, an AI coding startup, has acquired Poke, the company behind the popular AI assistant, in a deal valuing the startup in the low nine figures. Poke, developed by The Interaction Company of California, is known for its friendly, conversational interaction style, incorporating slang and humor. Cognition plans to integrate Poke's interaction model into its coding assistant Devin, aiming to make Devin feel more like a colleague than software. Poke will leverage Cognition's models and infrastructure for improved speed and reliability. The acquisition reflects a growing belief that AI personality is becoming a competitive advantage. Poke, launched in March 2026, allows users to interact via iMessage, SMS, Telegram, and WhatsApp for tasks across travel, health, finance, scheduling, and education. Over the past three months, users exchanged more than 100 million messages. In June, Poke became the first AI agent approved for Apple's Messages for Business platform. Going forward, Poke will remain unchanged through the end of the year, but next year it will experiment with Cognition's SWE-1.7 model. Fully combining the two products has not been ruled out. Cognition co-founders Scott Wu and Walden Yan were previously angel investors in Poke.