Poppy: California’s Digital Assistant
Powering business transformation in State government
Poppy, California’s digital assistant, is a secure, state-built Generative AI (GenAI) platform designed to help state employees work more effectively in service of the public. Built by the California Department of Technology (CDT), Poppy gives agencies access to trusted GenAI tools that are secure, compliant, and designed specifically to support the work of government employees.
Poppy was launched in response to Governor Newsom’s 2023 GenAI Executive Order, with a pilot program beginning September 29, 2025. During the pilot phase, 2,800+ state employees from across 67 departments provided input, leading the way to a statewide rollout planned for July 2026.
Helping state agencies responsibly adopt AI
Poppy provides a secure space to explore AI’s productivity benefits, helping agencies and staff leverage GenAI more effectively and confidently. It was intentionally designed to support the core ways teams use GenAI every day.
Poppy empowers state employees to do more while giving them more time to apply their expertise where it matters most. Here are examples of how staff use Poppy:
Draft documents, reports, and clear communications.
Summarize and analyze large amounts of data or complex materials.
Research policy rules and guidance using trusted California sources.
Whether someone is new to using GenAI or already experienced, Poppy is designed to help employees safely explore how generative AI can support their work.
Empowering public servants
Poppy is designed for employees across government — not just technical teams.
The platform helps staff:
- Save and reuse prompts
- Share workflows across teams
- Build custom AI tools for agency-specific needs
- Integrate AI into existing government systems
- Experiment safely regardless of technical experience
By lowering barriers to adoption, Poppy helps more public servants participate in shaping how AI is used in government.
The Poppy Difference
Using trusted CA.gov sources, Poppy provides reliable, relevant information that helps all levels of staff explore GenAI confidently, work more efficiently, and deliver better outcomes for Californians.
Empowering Staff with Flexibility and Collaboration
- 10 GenAI models in one platform – Updated based on emerging technology
- Side-by-side model comparison – Compare outputs across multiple models in a single view, making it easy to find the best tool for each task.
- Customized Team workspaces – Tailored to specific roles or departments.
- Works with existing tools and systems – Developers can integrate Poppy, so it works seamlessly with the tools and databases behind state work, via API connectivity.
- Vendor-agnostic by design – Poppy is not tied to a single GenAI provider. Agencies can use any of the offered models interchangeably, including Claude, Gemini, GPT, or Nova – without vendor lock in or renegotiating contracts.
Secure and compliant
What State employees are saying about Poppy
“Poppy access is a game changer. Querying the model directly from the terminal against local code has completely changed my workflow. It dramatically speeds up understanding and makes reviews more systematic and repeatable. I expect it to save hundreds of hours and enable far more thorough, and defensible assessments. I haven’t been this excited about a tooling change in a long time.”
Andrew
California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB)
“I’m excited about the potential for this tool to significantly streamline and accelerate form completion processes, particularly for PAL and PDL. Additionally, I see strong value in leveraging its capabilities to perform comparative analyses between solution features and regulatory requirements, helping us identify and address compliance gaps with California regulations and policies.”
Valerie
Office of Technology and Solutions Integration (OTSI)
“I found the State Digital Assistant [Poppy] to be a sophisticated tool for finding and delving deeper into topics. As an example, I asked for a summary of the Federal H.R.1 Legislation and then delved deeper into components and the impacts to California. At times I would question the conclusions and the tool would provide me with the details, including research, that backed those conclusions. This tool saves a lot of time over conventional ways of completing research.”
Jim
California Department of Developmental Services (DDS)
If you have questions
Your CDT Account Lead can assist with business alignment, while the CDT Service Desk remains your first stop for technical support needs.