As companies chase the power of OpenAI’s ChatGPT language product, merger and acquisition deals for AI businesses are rising again, making a Minneapolis company’s messaging analysis software ultra valuable in a ballooning industry.
Pluralytics, a language science business formed in 2020 by former Public Radio International executives Alisa Miller and Rick Byrne and technologist Morteza Nia, built its AI to determine which words, images and phrases best convey a brand’s message to various groups of people.
Soon after launching, the startup landed several big-name clients, including Twin Cities-based hair salon franchiser Great Clips, Richfield-based Best Buy Co. and Nebraska-based Speedway Motors.
This week, the company was acquired by Dallas-based digital marketing agency Aletheia Marketing & Media Inc. to grow its suite of marketing services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Combining Pluralytics’ AI with Aletheia’s marketing know-how could help clients see an increase in campaign engagement of up to 30%, the companies stated.
“In today’s increasingly intricate marketing landscape, harnessing the power of Pluralytics has afforded Aletheia unparalleled comprehension of audience values and motivations,” said Chris Schembri, founder and CEO of Aletheia. “This partnership creates a comprehensive, end to end solution for marketers to achieve impactful results.”

Pluralyitcs was built using $5.5 million from mostly Texas-based investment funds. The company has been a beta partner of San Francisco-based OpenAI since 2021, predating the company’s well-known ChatGPT, and incorporated OpenAI’s GPT3 large language model into its own software. The relationship helped Pluralytics’ leaders better grasp how to use AI.
“We were interested in using the system to understand tone and we were one of the first to do that in terms of tone of language,” said Miller, the CEO at Pluralytics who will transition to chief AI officer and board member at Aletheia. Byrne will become chief marketing officer and Nia chief technology officer.