New York: Burson, the global communications agency focused on building value for clients through reputation, has acquired Limbik Inc., the cognitive AI company behind Decipher, Burson’s predictive intelligence platform designed to forecast how communications will resonate with audiences across more than 60 markets globally.
The acquisition is part of Burson’s continued investment in AI capabilities aimed at helping clients navigate reputation, communications and stakeholder trust in an increasingly complex information environment.
Limbik and Burson co-developed Decipher’s proprietary intellectual property over the past two years. The collaboration gave Burson an early position in AI-native audience intelligence, complementing its broader innovation suite that includes Sonar, Reputation Capital and The Fount.
With the acquisition, Limbik’s cognitive AI technology, engineering team and AI research team will become part of Burson’s in-house operations. The move is expected to accelerate the integration and development of AI products across Burson’s innovation portfolio and enable the Decipher platform to be deployed 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 uses predictive intelligence to assess how communications are likely to resonate with audiences, including forecasting the virality and believability of messaging before it reaches the market. The technology serves as the predictive engine within Burson’s AI-enabled ecosystem and supports work across GEO, Reputation Capital, Culture Up and influencer strategy.
As part of the acquisition, 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 at Burson.
The broader Limbik team will join Burson’s Innovation team, where it will contribute to developing and expanding the agency’s AI advisory and product capabilities across its operations.
“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.”
