Asana gets No-code helper-builder Stack AI

Asana has acquired artificial intelligence company Stack AI, the company announced Thursday after the market closed, part of a broader effort to position itself as an AI platform. The founders of Stack AI, Tony Rosinol and Bernard Aceituno, will join Asana as part of the acquisition. The company refused to share the costs of the deal.

Asana framed the acquisition as part of a major AI pivot, in which it is trying to transform its platform into “systems that can be used by teams to help people.”

The announcement was made to coincide with Asana’s earnings and earnings call.

Arrested such as AI workflow-automation systemsStack AI creates agents to work within existing systems, pulling data from Salesforce, Slack, Goggle Workspace, and other systems. The startup, which was part of Y Combinator’s Winter ’23 batch, faced fierce competition from automation tools like Zapier and AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Stack AI has raised less than $20 million in funding, according to Pitchbook data, with most of it coming in a recent $16 million Series A round. Around there it included funding from Gradient, Epaklon Capital, Lobby VC, LifeX Ventures, and Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch.

Although users are familiar with Asana’s work management, the company has released several AI-powered products in recent years, most notably AI Studio and developers. AI Teammates list of pre-made machines. While similar tools are available from major labs, Asana sees its integration into existing corporate workflows as a significant opportunity, allowing for disruption and training that would otherwise not be available.

Asana has been struggling in the public markets in the AI ​​era, losing more than half of its market value since the launch of ChatGPT – a skyrocket that was exacerbated by the departure of founder Dustin Moskovitz as CEO last March. But revenue continues to grow steadily, and the new administration is confident that its new public assistance products will bring it back.

“This acquisition accelerates our strategy and takes us to the next level of human resource development,” CEO Dan Rogers said in a statement. “We’re already seeing real growth with AI Teammates and AI Studio…