Soul Machines
Soul Machines builds emotionally expressive AI-powered digital humans for enterprise customer service, HR, and healthcare workflows. Founded in 2016 in New Zealand, it served Fortune 500 clients via bespoke digital-human subscriptions and developer self-serve tools before entering receivership in February 2026.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Soul Machines does
Soul Machines is a New Zealand-founded AI software company that builds emotionally expressive digital humans ("Digital People") and an enterprise platform for deploying them into customer-facing and administrative roles. Founded in 2016 by AI researcher Mark Sagar, the company developed a proprietary Experiential AI technology stack combining biologically inspired cognitive models with embodied cognition, rendered through patented Digital DNA avatar technology that models facial physiognomy across ethnicities and blends human faces for diverse digital personas. Its core offerings include Digital Workforce (an enterprise deployment platform with templates for customer service, HR benefits, clinical trial onboarding, and operations optimization), Workforce Connect (a workflow integration add-on for Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zapier), Soul Machines Studio (a self-serve developer environment with a JavaScript/TypeScript Web SDK), and a consumer-facing AI Assistants product with named personas such as Atlas, Alex, and Mia.
The platform integrates across the broader AI ecosystem rather than building a proprietary foundation model stack: conversational intelligence is anchored on OpenAI GPT, with TTS via Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Polly, plus ElevenLabs and Deepgram for voice, and Kore.ai and Voiceflow for orchestration. This layer-cake architecture allowed Soul Machines to position as a differentiated wrapper emphasizing empathy, emotional realism, and enterprise integration rather than competing on raw model capability.
Commercially, Soul Machines pursued a premium enterprise field-sales motion targeting Fortune 500 clients (Mercedes-Benz, P&G, Nestlé, ANZ, UCSF) with six-figure annual contracts and multi-month bespoke implementations, supplemented by self-serve Studio subscriptions, usage-based Workforce Connect plans, a JustTalk consumer subscription, and distribution through AWS Marketplace and Salesforce AppExchange. The company raised over US$135 million in venture capital across rounds led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Temasek, and Horizon Ventures, but in February 2026 entered receivership with KPMG appointed as receiver to find a buyer, after its website stated it could no longer provide normal services, founders had stepped down as directors in July 2024, and the Companies Office filing lapse indicated financial distress.
Soul Machines firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Soul Machines
- Legal name
- Soul Machines Limited
- Website
- https://soulmachines.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Closed
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Soul Machines builds emotionally expressive AI-powered digital humans for enterprise customer service, HR, and healthcare workflows. Founded in 2016 in New Zealand, it served Fortune 500 clients via bespoke digital-human subscriptions and developer self-serve tools before entering receivership in February 2026.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Soul Machines industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI Digital Humans Platform
- NAICS
- Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Agents & Autonomous Workflows (Tool Use, Planning, Multi-Agent) (HDAAACAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs) (HDAEANAJ), AI/ML Solution Integration & MLOps Enablement (BPAEAAAJ)
Keywords
Where Soul Machines is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Soul Machines business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Enterprise Digital Workforce Subscriptions: Multi-month bespoke implementations for enterprise clients including Fortune 500 companies, with six-figure annual contracts. Includes support for customer service, HR, and clinical trial roles.
- Soul Machines Studio Subscriptions: Developer-focused subscription for building and deploying custom AI assistants and digital people experiences with various pricing tiers.
- Professional Services: Bespoke creative services and multi-month implementation engagements for flagship brand programs requiring creative-team-led development.
- AI Assistants Consumer Subscription: Consumer-facing AI assistant product with subscription plans for individual users (e.g., Atlas for fitness coaching, Alex for English practice).
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Digital Workforce Enterprise |
| Usage-based | Monthly | Workforce Connect |
| Subscription | Monthly | Soul Machines Studio |
| Subscription | Monthly | AI Assistants (JustTalk) |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels7 records
Marketing channels7 records
Soul Machines product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Soul Machines develops and sells an Experiential AI platform that creates human-like digital people capable of seeing, hearing, remembering, and empathizing during real-time interactions. Its enterprise Digital Workforce deploys AI agents for customer service, HR, and healthcare roles, while a developer-facing Studio product and a consumer AI Assistants product line extend the technology across self-serve and consumer markets. The platform integrates with OpenAI, Microsoft, AWS, Google, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zapier.
Product overview
Soul Machines is a deep science and technology company that has evolved from a single platform into a multi-product portfolio. The core technology is Experiential AI combining cognitive modeling with embodied cognition, delivered through a platform-plus-modules architecture. The primary offerings include Digital Workforce as the enterprise deployment platform for AI Agents in customer service, HR, and healthcare roles; Workforce Connect as the workflow integration add-on connecting to Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zapier; Soul Machines Studio as the developer environment for building and customizing Digital Person experiences; and AI Assistants as the consumer-facing product line featuring named personas for personal coaching applications.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Digital Workforce: Enterprise platform for deploying AI-powered Digital People as customer service agents, HR benefits agents, operations optimization coaches, and clinical trial onboarding agents.
- Workforce Connect
- Soul Machines Studio
Products and services
- Digital Workforce Enterprise platform enabling businesses to deploy human-like AI Agents into high-ROI roles with intelligent orchestration across the AI stack. Offers templates for customer service agents, HR benefits agents, clinical trial onboarding, and operations optimization coaches. Targets large enterprise customers via AWS Marketplace with six-figure annual contracts.
- Workforce Connect Workflow integration application that enables deployment of Digital Workers within enterprise workflow products. Unlocks access to all integrations including Salesforce AppExchange, ServiceNow, and Zapier for closed-loop automations in candidate screening, lead qualification, and support triage. Offered as a separate subscription plan with minute-based usage quotas.
- Soul Machines Studio Self-serve developer platform for building, customizing, and deploying Digital Person experiences. Provides avatar customization, behavior configuration, conversation content connection, skills modules, language/voice settings, and deployment tools with multiple pricing tiers. Supports OpenAI GPT, Google TTS, Microsoft TTS, Amazon TTS integrations and a Web SDK.
- AI Assistants Consumer-facing digital assistant product line with multiple named AI personas offering personalized coaching for fitness, language learning, homework help, work conversations, travel tips, finance, and family communication. Sold via monthly subscription plans (JustTalk) directly to individual users.
Companies that use Soul Machines
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Soul Machines technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration11 records
AI capability10 records
Feature6 records
Soul Machines partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- MicrosoftcoreSoul Machines partnered with Microsoft in 2022 as part of its Azure/cloud integration strategy. The partnership involves integration of Soul Machines' digital human technology with Microsoft platforms, with the company offering Azure-based deployment options. Microsoft is also a listed integration partner within Soul Machines Studio.
- SalesforcecoreSoul Machines developed a Workforce Connect app for Salesforce available via AppExchange. The integration enables embedding emotionally intelligent, human-form AI agents into Salesforce/Agentforce workflows without code. Includes OAuth setup, permission set configuration, and API key-based connection.
- ServiceNowcoreSoul Machines offers a native integration with ServiceNow, enabling deployment of Digital Workers within ServiceNow workflows. The integration supports enterprise automation and workforce management use cases.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Soul Machines competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- HeyGen: HeyGen generates realistic AI avatars and videos for enterprise communications, marketing, and customer-facing content—a closely comparable offering to Soul Machines' AI Assistants and digital-person video experiences.
- Hour One: Hour One develops AI-generated virtual humans for enterprise video, training, and customer communications, paralleling Soul Machines' focus on lifelike digital personas for enterprise use.
- D-ID: D-ID creates AI-powered digital humans and talking avatars from photos and scripts, overlapping with Soul Machines' avatar-based conversational offering for customer engagement and content.
- Amelia (by SoundHound / IPsoft): Amelia provides enterprise conversational AI agents for customer service, ITSM, and HR—directly competing with Soul Machines Digital Workforce in the enterprise agent deployment space.
- Yellow.ai: Yellow.ai is an enterprise conversational AI and customer service automation platform that overlaps with Soul Machines' Digital Workforce CX/HR/sales agent deployments.
- Kore.ai: Kore.ai provides enterprise conversational AI platforms and agent orchestration—comparable to Soul Machines' Digital Workforce and Workforce Connect, and is even listed as one of Soul Machines' integration partners.
- UneeQ: UneeQ builds autonomous digital humans for enterprise customer experience across banking, healthcare, and retail—directly mirroring Soul Machines' Digital Workforce offering with a similar embodied-AI agent model.
Emerging players
- Synthesia: Synthesia creates AI-generated avatar videos for enterprise L&D and communications—an adjacent digital-human competitor that overlaps with Soul Machines' enterprise video and communication use cases.
Broad incumbents
- Microsoft (Azure Digital Twins / Mesh): Microsoft's Azure Digital Twins, Mesh avatars, and Copilot stack provide broader enterprise AI/digital-person capabilities, and Microsoft is also a Soul Machines integration partner—creating both a complementary and competitive dynamic.
- NVIDIA (Avatar Cloud Engine / Omniverse): NVIDIA's Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) and Omniverse Avatar offer infrastructure and models for building digital humans, positioning NVIDIA as both a potential partner and a broad-based competitor to Soul Machines' full-stack digital human platform.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Soul Machines social profiles
Digital presenceSoul Machines compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance3 records
Soul Machines financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Soul Machines leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles11 records
Soul Machines funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds8 records
Investors13 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Soul Machines M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Soul Machines
What does Soul Machines do?
Soul Machines develops and sells an Experiential AI platform that creates human-like digital people capable of seeing, hearing, remembering, and empathizing during real-time interactions. Its enterprise Digital Workforce deploys AI agents for customer service, HR, and healthcare roles, while a developer-facing Studio product and a consumer AI Assistants product line extend the technology across self-serve and consumer markets. The platform integrates with OpenAI, Microsoft, AWS, Google, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zapier.
Is Soul Machines a public or private company?
Soul Machines is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently closed.
When was Soul Machines founded?
Soul Machines was founded in 2016. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Soul Machines based?
Soul Machines is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Soul Machines make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Enterprise Digital Workforce Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are soul Machines Studio Subscriptions, professional Services and AI Assistants Consumer Subscription.
Who are Soul Machines's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are HeyGen, Hour One, D-ID, Amelia (by SoundHound / IPsoft), Yellow.ai, Kore.ai and UneeQ. Synthesia is listed as an emerging player. Broad incumbents are Microsoft (Azure Digital Twins / Mesh) and NVIDIA (Avatar Cloud Engine / Omniverse).
Does Soul Machines have an API?
Yes. Soul Machines provides multiple APIs for developer integration: (1) Web SDK (smwebsdk) for JavaScript/TypeScript to integrate Digital People into websites with standard web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, recommended for use with React, VUE, or Angular; (2) Skills API for advanced connection capabilities; (3) Interactions API for creating and managing AI conversations; and (4) Orchestration Server pathway for unsupported NLP services, custom backend, rich authentication, or flexible data analytics. API key authentication is used for Workforce Connect integrations. Developer documentation is at docs.soulmachines.com.
What industry is Soul Machines in?
Soul Machines's product category is AI Digital Humans Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAACAF, Agents & Autonomous Workflows (Tool Use, Planning, Multi-Agent), with a secondary code of HDAEANAJ, AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs). Its NAICS code is 541511 and its SIC code is 7372.