AppDirect Acquired Soul Machines AI Firm
The commerce platform will integrate human-like interactive avatars into its automated business services.
Updated on Sept. 28, 2026 in Robotics
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AppDirect has acquired Soul Machines, a company specializing in artificial intelligence avatars that can listen, see, and react during user interactions. This development adds empathetic AI interfaces to the AppDirect cloud-based business commerce platform.
Why it matters
Organizations are increasingly seeking to deploy interactive AI to manage sales, customer support, and advisory services. By acquiring Soul Machines, AppDirect intends to automate these complex interfaces directly within its commerce ecosystem.
Soul Machines provides AI avatars designed to mimic human empathy through vision, audio, and memory capabilities. These systems will be deployed within apps built in Devs.ai to supplement existing billing and user provisioning automation.
The players
AppDirect
A cloud-based business commerce platform that automates billing, invoicing, and service provisioning for enterprises.
Soul Machines
A developer of interactive, human-like artificial intelligence avatars designed to emulate empathy in user experiences.
The details
Soul Machines builds interactive digital humans that utilize vision and audio sensors to process, remember, and react to individual user interactions. AppDirect provides a cloud-based platform that automates billing, invoicing, and mobile management for business services. By integrating these avatars into its commerce stack, AppDirect enables administrators to replace or supplement static service catalogs with dynamic, human-like AI advisors for sales and support workflows.
Timeline
September 28, 2026: AppDirect announced the acquisition of Soul Machines.
The Tech Race
This acquisition moves AppDirect into direct competition with firms building conversational AI interfaces for enterprise commerce. The integration into the Devs.ai environment marks a shift from static service catalogs toward active, responsive advisory agents.
Business administrators using the AppDirect platform will eventually be able to build interactive avatars into their customer-facing service catalogs. Specific rollout dates for the availability of these avatars within the Devs.ai environment have not yet been announced.
The takeaway
The move signals a transition toward more personalized, empathetic AI agents within enterprise commerce stacks. Watch for upcoming announcements regarding the specific timeline for avatar deployment within the Devs.ai platform.
Further reading
For more on how automated systems are evolving, see Robotics.
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Do you feel more comfortable interacting with AI avatars than with traditional text-based interfaces?
