Burson has acquired cognitive AI company Limbik Inc., bringing the technology and team behind its predictive intelligence platform Decipher in-house. The acquisition expands Burson’s AI capabilities across its communications and reputation products.
Limbik and Burson co-developed Decipher over the past two years. According to Burson, the platform forecasts how communications will resonate with audiences in more than 60 markets by predicting the virality and believability of messaging before it reaches the market.
The acquisition brings Limbik’s proprietary cognitive AI capabilities, engineering team and AI research team into Burson. It will allow the agency to accelerate product integration and development across its innovation suite, which includes Sonar, Reputation Capital and The Fount, while making Decipher available across the WPP network through WPP Open.
“Decipher has become foundational to how we help clients build, protect and prove the value of their reputation in real time,” said Corey duBrowa, CEO of Burson.
“Bringing Limbik’s team and technology on board at Burson lets us build solutions faster for our clients and own our future technology roadmap. This work isn’t a separate service line item anymore. It’s foundational to every piece of client work we do, and it’s how we help clients lead, not just adapt, in the intelligence era. This move ensures faster answers, sharper judgment and a predictive, ‘see around corners’ edge we can put directly in our clients’ hands, no matter where in the world we’re working or what problem we’re helping them solve.”
Decipher serves as the predictive engine behind its AI-enabled ecosystem, supporting work across GEO, Reputation Capital, Culture Up and influencer strategy.
Limbik co-founders Zach Schwitzky and Josh Levin will join Burson as Global Head of Innovation, AI Platforms and Products, and Global Head of Innovation, Clients & Growth, respectively. Both will report to Chad Latz, Global Chief Innovation Officer. The broader Limbik team will also join Burson’s Innovation team.
“Every firm in the industry is guessing how audiences will react. We built the cognitive framework that knows,” said Zach Schwitzky, Co-Founder and CEO of Limbik.
“With Decipher, Burson didn’t just add a tool. It activated a model for how real audiences around the world respond to information. At Limbik, we set out to build the AI infrastructure that the world’s most influential agency runs on and the intelligence behind how it shapes and protects reputation at scale. Burson understood that before anyone else, and this is what setting the standard looks like.”
“With this acquisition, Burson continues building a standing innovation arm within our walls, designed to continuously generate, test and integrate new AI products across every practice, every geography and the entire communications and creative workflow,” said duBrowa.
“This is how we set the agenda for the industry – not by adapting to how AI changes communications but pioneering and proving what that change looks like.”
