AppDirect acquired Soul Machines, a New Zealand-founded maker of interactive AI avatars, for undisclosed terms and plans to build the avatars into Devs.ai, AppDirect’s platform for creating business AI apps, so users can add an avatar to any internal or customer-facing project. AppDirect is aiming the avatars at customer support, help desks for employees, onboarding, training, and shopping assistance, and Soul Machines’ existing customers get access to AppDirect’s integrations. Soul Machines raised more than US$135 million from backers including Horizons Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Temasek, but KPMG was appointed its receiver in February to find a buyer, and the receivers found it owed at least NZ$19.6 million.
