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AI agent Poke makes setting up automations as easy as sending a text Sarah Perez 2:05 PM PDT · April 8, 2026 Is Poke an OpenClaw for the rest of us? That’s the idea coming from a new startup offering an AI agent that you can access via iMessage, SMS, Telegram, and, in some markets, WhatsApp.
The AI agent Poke launched publicly in March, allowing consumers to access a personal assistant that can take action on their behalf through a familiar interface. Today, Poke can help with everyday needs, like daily planning, managing your calendar, tracking your health and fitness, controlling your smart home, editing your photos, and more, all via text message.
While you may still interact with a general-purpose AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Claude when you have questions or want to do research, you’d turn to Poke when you want to get something done quickly, or when you want to automate some task to save you time.
For instance, you could ask Poke to alert you to specific emails (like those from your family or your boss), or remind you in the morning if you need to take an umbrella with you. It could help you track your health and fitness goals, or let you know the score to last night’s game. Poke could send daily medication reminders, or catch you up on the day’s news, and more, since users can write their own automations in plain text and then share them with friends.
Backed by Spark Capital, General Catalyst, and other angels, the 10-person startup has more recently added another $10 million to its coffers, on top of last year’s $15 million seed round. It’s now valued at $300 million, post-money.
Starting today, personal superintelligence is just one tap away. No download, no signup. Text Poke for free now: https://t.co/VIWYU64dUI
— 0:00 – What's Poke? 0:50 – Introducing Poke Recipes 1:25 – Create a Recipe in 10 seconds 1:43 – Earn on Poke 2:44 – Build with npx… pic.twitter.com/LHLFRVgahkThe tool arrives as demand for agentic AI systems is spiking, leading OpenAI to snap up OpenClaw’s creator , and Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang to warn that every company needs its own OpenClaw strategy when announcing Nvidia’s enterprise-grade alternative.
But for those less technically inclined, the prospect of having to install software through the terminal, manage dependencies, and troubleshoot errors is daunting. Plus, systems like OpenClaw raise security concerns due to its deep system access.
For many people, then, OpenClaw and other agentic systems still feel out of reach. The team behind Poke wants to change that.
Marvin von Hagen , co-founder of The Interaction Company of California , the Palo Alto-based startup behind the new AI agent, tells TechCrunch that Poke emerged from watching how beta testers were using the company’s earlier product, an AI assistant for email, built around a year ago.
“What we noticed there was that people wanted to use Poke for everything… Even though it was only meant for email, people started asking Poke to remind them to take their medication. They asked Poke about sports results — ‘Hey Poke, tell me every morning if I need a jacket or not,’” explains von Hagen. “And at that time, we didn’t have a lot of this functionality, but we noticed how we needed to become general-purpose much more quickly, because people just like the personality and the humanness of it so much.”
The team then partially pivoted and focused on making Poke more useful, proactive, and more personable.
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