The future of personal assistance is here, and it runs on Whop.
Less than four years ago, ChatGPT launched and the world collectively lost its mind.
Today there are an estimated 30,000 to 70,000 AI tools competing for your attention. But only one has been approved to run inside Apple Messages.
Meet Poke.
An AI assistant that fits into your life, not the other way around
Poke is an AI personal assistant that lives inside the messaging apps you already use – like Apple Messages, WhatsApp, and Telegram.
You can connect it to your Gmail, calendar, Notion, Oura ring, smart home (and more), and it takes care of everyday tasks for you: things like drafting emails, tracking your sleep, organizing your to-do list, or flagging anything important that lands in your inbox.
The best part? Poke does this proactively.
And, it's pretty slick.
This assistant talks to you like a friend, not a robot. It gives you the kind of encouragement you need to get your life in order.
But who builds something like this? Meet the founders.
Poke is the brainchild of Marvin von Hagen and Felix Schlegel. The two co-founders met at a middle school hackathon in Germany, and in 2021 won Elon Musk's Not-a-Boring Competition: a global challenge to build the world's fastest tunnel-boring machine.
Turns out whether it's tunnels or AI, their approach is the same: go where the problem is and solve it properly.
With over 100 million messages sent, Poke is kind of a big deal. But Marvin and Felix realized something that most AI companies aren't willing to admit: as advanced as AI is, it can't do everything (yet).
So rather than trying to replace humans with AI, they chose to look at it from a new angle: replace AI with humans.
Enter: Poke Human.
Poke Human: because sometimes, AI isn’t enough
Poke Human is the human-in-the-loop layer for tasks AI can't handle yet. Things like chasing up your lost luggage, sending a handwritten card, or even touching grass (yes, really).
Remember though: these are real people. Poke AI knows that, and it's not afraid to push back on a bad request.
Ask it to read the Bee Movie script to your mate and it'll shut that down real fast.
Here’s how it works: users subscribed to Ultra and simply use Poke as usual, with the AI detecting when the task needs a human touch.
When this happens, Poke Human will loop in a real person - a virtual assistant who can take care of phone calls, booking rides, and more. All without you ever leaving your messages.
And it runs on Whop.
Poke x Whop
Behind every Poke Human task, there's Whop.
Paying the VAs: Whop embedded payouts
When a Poke Human VA completes a task, they get paid out through Whop embedded payouts.
Whop's payout infrastructure handles the full flow: identity verification (KYC) for each VA, connecting their payout method, and processing withdrawals directly to their bank account.
Poke doesn't have to build any of this: the payout portal is embedded directly inside their platform as a component, so VAs can manage their own balance and withdraw funds without ever leaving the Poke ecosystem.
Smooth.
Empowering the VAs: Whop Cards
When a VA needs to spend on a user's behalf – booking a restaurant with deposit, reserving a ride, placing an order – they do it on a Whop card.
Whop Cards are Whop-issued virtual Visa cards that spend directly from a Whop balance. They're accepted anywhere Visa is, work online and in stores, and can be added to Apple Pay.
Poke can issue individual cards to each VA, set spending controls, and track every transaction, so when a VA books a dinner reservation in Tokyo on a user's behalf, the spend is managed, visible, and accounted for.
And on eligible purchases, like Uber rides, Poke earns 5% cashback directly back into their Whop balance.
Power your platform with Whop
Poke is seamless. It takes care of your tasks, and whatever AI can't handle yet, it passes to a human.
Think about it: a full-time personal assistant can cost between $70,000 and $125,000 a year, and that's before benefits. With Poke Ultra at $199 a month, you get that on-demand, for a fraction of the cost.
And none of it would be possible without Whop. With Whop's infrastructure running behind the scenes (paying VAs, equipping them with cards, handling the compliance), everything behind the curtain runs as smoothly as everything in front of it.
Want to bring Whop to your app?
*Editor's note: Since this case study was written, Poke has been acquired by Cognition, an AI coding startup, in a deal valuing the company in the low nine figures. Poke continues to operate as usual.
