TechCrunch reports that the small, 6 person startup that Apple has acquihired is Init.ai. The company was known for its customer service automation.
The report notes that there was no intellectual property included in the deal, but was instead about bringing the Init.ai team to Apple to work on Siri.
Back at WWDC this past summer, Apple announced a new feature for iOS 11 called Business Chat.
It’s likely that Apple made this acquihire to move forward in building out this service. Interestingly enough, it may have been a blog post about Siri’s closed nature written by Init.ai co-founder Keith Brisson that grabbed Apple’s attention.
The acquisition is the company’s latest following computer vision startup Regaind last month.
