Poppy launches proactive AI assistant to organize your digital life
▼ Summary
– Poppy is a new app that combines email, calendar, messages, and location into a single dashboard to reduce distraction.
– The app uses AI to proactively suggest actions, like taking a walk during a free gap or recommending restaurants based on a friend’s food preferences.
– Users can message Poppy with requests, and it can track flights or send medication reminders.
– The creator, Sai Kambampati, aims to create ambient computing that anticipates user needs, building on his background in human-computer interaction.
– Poppy integrates with services like Apple Calendar, Gmail, and WhatsApp, and encrypts user data with a zero-retention policy for cloud AI suggestions.
Smartphones bombard users with endless notifications and a chaotic mix of apps. A new application, Poppy, aims to cut through that noise by merging your calendar, email, messages, and other sources into a streamlined single dashboard.
As the company describes, “Poppy pays attention so you don’t have to.” Users link services such as their email, calendar, and at minimum, their location. The app then uses that data alongside AI to determine what matters most at any given moment. A quick glance at Poppy’s app or widgets reveals your upcoming meetings and tasks.
The standout capability, however, lies in proactive suggestions. If Poppy knows your calendar shows a 30-minute gap while you are near a park, it might recommend taking a walk before your next meeting. Planning brunch with a friend who mentioned dietary preferences in a past message? Poppy can factor that into restaurant recommendations.
You can also message Poppy with questions or requests, much like a personal assistant. It tracks flights and alerts you to changes, or nudges you when it is time for medication.
Founder Sai Kambampati, who holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science focused on human-computer interaction, has long been intrigued by how people engage with technology. A former software engineer at the AI hardware startup Humane, he has witnessed efforts to rethink tech interaction firsthand.
“I’ve always been interested in challenging what computers are able to do, especially the idea of ambient computing and computers that can proactively sense what you need and anticipate your needs,” Kambampati told TechCrunch. “That’s something that I found very, very exciting. And I felt like with all the AI technology that we’re seeing around us, it has never been more possible to embark on something like this.”
At launch, Poppy integrates with everyday tools like Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Gmail, Outlook, iCloud Mail, Apple Health, Reminders, Contacts, iMessage, WhatsApp, and others. (It uses a Mac app to access iMessage, though Apple generally restricts third-party access to its messaging service, which could pose challenges later.) Support for Uber, Instacart, and additional apps is planned over time.
The company encrypts user data when stored and applies a zero-retention policy when using cloud-based LLMs for suggestions. Kambampati hopes to eventually shift to local, on-device AI models as technology advances.
“My hope, my dream is , within two to three years from now, when our devices have much more powerful compute, and the models get much smaller, cheaper and more high quality , eventually we can have all of this running on our own devices, and there won’t even be a need to hit the servers,” he says.
Poppy’s San Francisco-based team of four is backed by $1.25 million in pre-seed funding led by Kindred Ventures, with participants including DeepMind’s Logan Kilpatrick and other angels.
(Source: TechCrunch)
