Cognition, the AI coding startup behind autonomous software engineer Devin, announced on July 23-24, 2026 that it has acquired The Interaction Company of California, the small team behind Poke, a text-message-based AI agent known for its casual, friend-like conversational style. Terms weren't officially disclosed, but multiple reports place the deal in the "low nine figures."

What Cognition is buying

Poke, which launched in March 2026, lives inside users' existing messaging apps — iMessage, SMS, Telegram, and WhatsApp in some markets — rather than a standalone chat window. Its distinguishing feature isn't raw capability but tone: Poke responds like a texting friend, incorporating slang and humor instead of the more formal register typical of assistant products. That personality-first approach built a loyal, if niche, user base distinct from task-oriented agents like Devin.

Cognition CEO Scott Wu said the deal was "two years in the making," with ties between the two teams reportedly dating back to Devin's original 2024 launch video. Cognition's stated plan is to bring Poke's interaction model and conversational style into Devin, rather than operate Poke as a fully separate product going forward, though the company has not detailed a specific integration timeline.

Why it matters

The acquisition is a signal that AI agent companies are starting to compete on interaction design, not just underlying model capability. As coding and task-completion agents from Cognition, OpenAI, and others converge on similar benchmark scores, how an agent talks to and engages a user is becoming a differentiator in its own right — particularly for consumer-facing surfaces like messaging, where Cognition has historically had less presence than in developer tools. The deal also continues a wave of consolidation in the agent space, where well-funded coding-agent companies are absorbing smaller consumer AI teams to broaden their product surface rather than building every interaction layer in-house.