内容来源：https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/08/poke-makes-ai-agents-as-easy-as-sending-a-text/

内容总结：

【科技前沿】AI助手“Poke”以短信交互颠覆自动化体验，瞄准大众市场挑战技术门槛

在AI智能体（Agent）竞争白热化的当下，一家名为The Interaction Company的硅谷初创公司推出了可通过iMessage、短信和Telegram等日常通讯工具访问的AI助手“Poke”，旨在将自动化能力带给不具备技术背景的普通用户。该产品于今年3月正式上线，目前估值已达3亿美元。

与需要复杂配置的OpenClaw等专业AI系统不同，Poke无需安装应用，用户仅需在官网输入手机号即可通过短信界面调用。其核心定位是“执行助手”——当用户需要快速处理日常事务或自动完成重复任务时，Poke可通过整合Gmail、谷歌日历、Notion等常见应用，协助完成日程管理、健康追踪、智能家居控制、邮件筛选乃至个性化新闻推送等操作。

公司联合创始人Marvin von Hagen透露，Poke的诞生源于用户对早期邮件助手产品的“超范围使用”：尽管功能最初仅限邮件处理，但测试者频繁尝试用它提醒服药、查询赛事比分甚至询问穿衣建议。这种对“拟人化交互”的强烈需求促使团队全面转向通用型助手开发。

在技术架构上，Poke采取多模型策略，根据任务类型动态调用不同AI供应商或开源模型，避免了单一技术绑定的局限。目前其自动化生态已涵盖健康、效率、财务、旅行等十余个场景的“配方”（recipes），用户可一键启用并授权关联现有服务。为激励生态建设，公司还推出创作者奖励计划，根据配方推广效果支付0.1-1美元不等的分成。

商业化方面，Poke采用灵活定价机制：基础功能免费，涉及实时数据调用（如邮件自动处理、航班动态追踪）时则按需计费。创始人强调现阶段目标并非盈利，而是追求用户规模增长，“希望为十亿人打造产品”。

尽管在巴西等市场因Meta政策限制暂无法接入WhatsApp，但欧盟等地反垄断调查可能推动平台开放。随着Spark Capital、General Catalyst及Stripe创始人在内的投资者加持，这家10人团队已在种子轮1500万美元基础上新增1000万美元融资。数据显示，过去数月其用户量已增长十倍，在Vercel AI网关排行榜中位列榜首。

在OpenClaw引发企业级AI战略热潮的背景下，Poke正试图证明：降低技术门槛与保护隐私安全（默认不读取用户数据）的消费级智能体，同样能在AI平民化浪潮中占据关键席位。

中文翻译：

Poke是面向大众的OpenClaw吗？这正是这家新兴初创公司提出的理念，他们推出了一款可通过iMessage、短信、Telegram以及部分市场的WhatsApp访问的AI智能体。

AI智能体Poke于今年三月正式上线，让消费者能够通过熟悉的界面使用个人助理，并代表他们执行任务。目前，Poke可通过短信帮助处理日常需求，例如每日规划、管理日历、追踪健康与健身数据、控制智能家居、编辑照片等。

当你需要解答疑问或进行研究时，可能仍会与ChatGPT或Claude这类通用AI聊天机器人互动；但当你希望快速完成某项任务，或想通过自动化节省时间时，Poke就会成为你的首选。

例如，你可以让Poke提醒你查收特定邮件（比如来自家人或老板的邮件），或在早晨提示你是否需要带伞。它能帮你追踪健康与健身目标，或告诉你昨晚比赛的比分。Poke还能发送每日用药提醒、汇总当日新闻等——用户可以用纯文本编写自己的自动化流程，并与朋友分享。

这家10人规模的初创公司获得了Spark Capital、General Catalyst等天使投资人的支持，在去年1500万美元种子轮融资的基础上，近期又获得了1000万美元追加投资。目前公司投后估值已达3亿美元。

随着市场对智能体AI系统的需求激增，该工具应运而生。这一趋势促使OpenAI迅速收购了OpenClaw的开发商，英伟达CEO黄仁勋也在发布企业级替代方案时警告称，每家公司都需要制定自己的OpenClaw战略。

但对于技术背景较弱的用户而言，需要通过终端安装软件、管理依赖项和排查错误的前景令人望而却步。此外，OpenClaw等系统因深度访问权限引发了安全担忧。

对许多人来说，OpenClaw和其他智能体系统仍显得遥不可及。Poke背后的团队希望改变这一现状。

这款新型AI智能体的开发商——位于帕洛阿尔托的加州互动公司联合创始人马文·冯·哈根告诉TechCrunch，Poke的诞生源于对测试用户使用行为的观察。该公司约一年前推出了专注于邮件的AI助手早期产品。

“我们注意到用户希望用Poke处理所有事务……尽管它本仅用于邮件，但人们开始让Poke提醒服药、查询体育赛果——‘嘿Poke，每天早上告诉我是否需要穿外套’，”冯·哈根解释道，“当时我们并不具备这些功能，但我们意识到必须加速向通用型转型，因为用户实在太喜爱它的人格化特质和人性化设计了。”

团队随后进行了部分转型，专注于让Poke变得更实用、更主动、更亲切。

与OpenClaw不同，使用Poke非常简单：只需访问Poke.com，点击“开始使用”并输入电话号码。无需安装应用程序，该助手完全通过短信操作。

在技术底层，Poke会根据任务特性选择最合适的AI模型，无论是主流AI供应商的模型还是开源模型。

冯·哈根指出：“我认为这也是我们长期的核心优势之一：几乎所有竞争对手都局限于特定供应商的大型科技公司和实验室。例如Meta AI只能使用Meta模型，ChatGPT只能使用OpenAI模型。”

为在iMessage等通讯平台运行，Poke还采用了Linq解决方案，使AI助手能内置于通讯应用中。该应用也支持短信和Telegram，但由于Meta去年秋季禁止其他通用聊天机器人，WhatsApp支持目前有限。

不过情况可能改变。欧盟、意大利和巴西的监管机构已就此展开反垄断调查，这使Poke得以重返巴西市场。若Meta降低费用，Poke也有望在欧盟的WhatsApp上运行。（Meta因高昂收费遭遇抵制——冯·哈根称这是“恶意合规”的表现，他认为问题很快会得到解决。）

上线初期，Poke提供多种“配方”——即预制工具，可帮助自动化生活或工作的各个方面。这些配方涵盖健康养生、效率提升、财务、日程安排、旅行、家居、学业、邮件、社群等类别，还为技术人员提供开发者工具。安装只需点击按钮，必要时进行标准授权流程。

这些配方可与常用应用服务协同工作，如Gmail、Google日历、Outlook、Notion、Linear、Granola等。健康健身类配方支持Strava、Withings、Oura、Fitbit等平台，还有与飞利浦Hue、Sonos等公司智能家居设备联动的配方。

开发者使用Poke时，可通过集成PostHog、Webflow、Supabase、Vercel、Devin、Sentry、GitHub、Cursor云代理等工具实现工作流自动化。

Poke采用多层安全模型，包括定期渗透测试、安全检查、多种工具，以及对智能体和员工权限的限制。默认情况下，团队无法查看令牌内任何信息，除非用户主动通过设置开关选择共享日志文件或分析数据。（需要说明的是，TechCrunch未进行独立安全审计。）

过去几周，Poke用户创建了数千个新配方和自动化流程，公司计划近期将其加入配方库供用户探索。为激励创作者构建可共享配方，Poke承诺为每个通过配方注册的用户向创作者支付0.1至1美元（根据地缘差异浮动）。

Poke的使用成本出人意料地亲民：可免费开始使用，定价机制灵活。在测试阶段，用户实际上需要与AI助手协商月付价格，区间在10-30美元——至少Poke在回答此问题时是这样告知我们的。

冯·哈根表示，目前定价基于AI助手的使用方式。若仅使用无需实时数据的服务，很可能免费；实时推理（如处理每封 incoming 邮件或实时航班值机的自动化）才会产生成本。公司已向Poke提供成本指导，使其能制定个性化定价。

尽管公司已通过提升Poke运行效率来降低成本，冯·哈根强调当前目标并非盈利：“我们真正追求的不是盈利而是增长。我们希望为十亿用户打造产品，商业化始终是次要目标。未来数周乃至数月的目标是将Poke融入日常生活。”为此，公司将借助创作者和网红展示使用场景。

由费利克斯·施莱格尔联合创立的公司未透露具体用户数，仅表示过去几个月增长了十倍。（不过我们确实在Vercel的AI网关排行榜首看到了Poke的身影。）

除主要机构投资者Spark Capital和General Catalyst外，该初创公司还吸引了众多天使投资人，包括约翰·科里森与帕特里克·科里森（Stripe创始人）、杰克·保罗与洛根·保罗、DeepMind的洛根·基尔帕特里克、OpenAI的乔安妮·张、以及斯科特·吴和沃尔登·严（Cognition创始人）。

投资方还包括Vercel联合创始人吉列尔莫·劳赫、PayPal联合创始人肯·豪厄里、Dropbox联合创始人阿拉什·费尔多西、Mercor联合创始人布伦丹·富迪、Hugging Face联合创始人托马斯·沃尔夫、Flapping Airplanes联合创始人本·斯佩克特等。

英文来源：

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.
The 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.
Unlike OpenClaw, getting started with Poke is easy. You simply visit Poke.com, click “Get Started,” and enter your phone number. There’s no app to install as the assistant operates over text messaging.
Under the hood, Poke turns to the AI model that best fits the task, whether that’s a model from one of the big AI providers or an open source model.
“I think this is also one of our main strengths in the long run: that almost all of our competitors are just big tech and labs that are bound to a specific provider. Like Meta AI will only ever be able to use Meta models, and ChatGPT will only ever be able to use OpenAI models,” von Hagen points out.
To work over messaging platforms like iMessage, Poke also leverages Linq, a solution that enables AI assistants to live within messaging apps. The app can run through SMS and Telegram, too, but WhatsApp support is currently limited as Meta barred other general-purpose chatbots last fall.
That could change, however. Regulators from the EU, Italy, and Brazil opened antitrust probes to fight this decision, which has brought Poke back to Brazil. It will hopefully also allow Poke to work on WhatsApp in the EU when Meta brings the costs down. (Meta has seen pushback over the high fees it’s charging — von Hagen says it’s a form of “malicious compliance” that he believes will soon be addressed.)
At launch, Poke offers a variety of “recipes” — or pre-made tools that help you automate various aspects of your life or work. These span categories like health and wellness, productivity, finance, scheduling, travel, home, school, email, community, and, for those who are technical, developer tools. Installing them requires a click of a button and then a standard authorization process, if needed.
These recipes are designed to work with apps and services you already know, like Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Notion, Linear, Granola, and others. There are health and fitness “recipes” that work with Strava, Withings, Oura, Fitbit, and more, as well as those that work with smart home devices from companies like Philips Hue and Sonos.
Developers using Poke can also automate parts of their workflow via integrations with tools like PostHog, Webflow, Supabase, Vercel, Devin, Sentry, GitHub, Cursor Cloud Agents, and others.
Poke’s security model is multi-layered and includes regular penetration testing, security checks, various tools, and limiting permissions for both agents and human employees. By default, the team can’t see anything inside the tokens, unless the user manually opts to provide access to a log file or analytics by flipping a switch in their settings to opt to share this information. (TechCrunch has not performed its own security audit, to be clear.)
Over the past couple of weeks, Poke’s users have created thousands more recipes and automations, which the company plans to add to its recipes directory for discovery in the near future. It’s also encouraging creators to build these shareable recipes by offering to pay somewhere between 10 cents and a dollar (based on geography) for every user who signs up for Poke via the recipe.
The cost to use Poke is surprisingly affordable: it’s free to start, then pricing is flexible. During the beta tests, users actually had to negotiate with the AI agent what price they’d pay per month, which ranged between $10-$30 — or so Poke told us in response to this question.
Von Hagen says that, now, pricing is based on how the AI agent is being used. If you’re asking for things that don’t require real-time data, you could probably use Poke for free. What costs Poke money is real-time inference, like automations that run on every incoming email or real-time flight check-ins. To set prices, the company gave Poke guidance on how expensive things are, which allows it to determine personalized pricing.
While the company has managed to make Poke more efficient to reduce costs, the goal right now isn’t profitability, von Hagen notes.
“We really don’t want to make money, but we really want to grow. We want to build a product for a billion people and monetization is really secondary,” he says. “The goal for the next weeks and months now is to bring Poke into everyday life.” To do so, it will look to creators and influencers to showcase how they’re using Poke.
The company, co-founded by Felix Schlegel, isn’t sharing how many customers have signed up, beyond noting that the figure has 10x’ed over the past couple of months. (However, we did spot Poke at the top of Vercel’s AI Gateway leaderboard, for whatever that’s worth.)
In addition to its main institutional investors, Spark Capital and General Catalyst, the startup has attracted the attention of a number of angels, including John and Patrick Collison (Stripe founders), Jake and Logan Paul, Logan Kilpatrick from DeepMind, Joanne Jang of OpenAI, and Scott Wu and Walden Yan (Cognition founders).
It also included Vercel co-founder Guillermo Rauch, PayPal co-founder Ken Howery, Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi, Mercor co-founder Brendan Foody, Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf, Flapping Airplanes co-founder Ben Spector, and several others.