From Idea to “Ask-Anything” AI: UC Davis’ Artificial Intelligence Journey
Quick Summary
- UC Davis launched Aggie AI, a secure ecosystem of AI tools built for the campus community to enhance learning, research, and operations.
- Rocky is the first campus-specific AI chat tool, designed to provide secure, verifiable, campus-specific guidance by drawing from internal and external data.
- The university encourages campus-wide use of approved tools and cautions against introducing unvetted AI platforms.
- The Aggie AI timeline shows a thoughtful rollout of homegrown and vendor resources, designed and curated with safety, ethics, and innovation in mind.
This article was originally published in the IET Connect - Winter 2026 newsletter.
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Aggie AI: A Campus-Built AI Ecosystem
UC Davis is embracing the next wave of innovation with Aggie AI, the university’s own ecosystem of artificial intelligence tools and services built for UC Davis, by UC Davis. The goal: empowering students, faculty, and staff to explore, learn, use, and even develop AI tools that enhance learning, research, operations, and community life.
Launched in spring 2024, Aggie AI reflects UC Davis’s commitment to ethical, secure, and mission-aligned AI adoption. As the ecosystem matured, more tools were added and the promise of a tailored campus-AI network began to take shape.
Learn more about Aggie AI | Explore Aggie AI Tools
Meet Rocky, Your Personalized UC Davis Guide
At the heart of Aggie AI lies Rocky, UC Davis’ first campus-specific AI chat tool. Designed in collaboration with the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and IET, Rocky isn’t just another generic AI chatbot, it’s “made for Aggies.” It speaks campus language, understands UC Davis context, and delivers information rooted in campus data.
Currently in beta, Rocky launched in fall 2024 with a pilot program involving over 350 faculty and staff. By 2025 Rocky expanded into open beta for all employees, with further rollouts and access expansions planned for students and Health campus faculty and staff.
Because Rocky draws from UC Davis’s own data and resources, answers are secure and verifiable. Users get campus-specific guidance, whether they’re looking for parking, academic info, campus acronyms, or community resources.
The Roadmap: What’s Next for Aggie AI
The Aggie AI timeline lays out an intentional, phased rollout:
- Fall 2024 — Rocky launched in closed beta; early pilot programs for Zoom AI Companion begin.
- Spring 2025 — Rocky enters open beta for faculty and staff; additional tools such as ChatGPT Edu are released to limited campus groups.
- Summer 2025 — Further expansion: more AI tools made available (e.g., Google Gemini and NotebookLM through Google Workspace), broader Rocky access planned, and infrastructure scaled to meet increasing usage.
- Fall 2025 and beyond — Updated AI guidance released. Rocky expected to support queries using non-public UC Davis data, enabling deeper, more specialized services.
Underpinning the roadmap is a careful focus on security, privacy, ethical AI use, and alignment with UC Davis values. The university encourages campus-wide use of approved tools and cautions against introducing unvetted AI platforms.
Turning Innovation into Impact: Why This Matters
With Rocky and Aggie AI, UC Davis is building an AI-enabled campus culture grounded in collaboration, transparency and community service.
- For new faculty and staff: Rocky lowers the barrier to campus orientation and helps newcomers navigate campus complexity fast.
- For busy faculty and staff: Rocky streamlines processes, offers quick access to institutional knowledge and supports efficient workflows.
- For equity & inclusion: By offering accessible, centralized information, Aggie AI supports diverse community needs and helps make UC Davis more navigable to everyone.
- For future growth: As AI tools become available to departments, research groups, and support units, UC Davis becomes better equipped to evolve with AI while safeguarding privacy and integrity.
In short: Rocky isn’t just about AI, it’s about empowering people.
Aggie AI: Your First Step Into UC Davis’ AI Future
If you’re faculty or staff at UC Davis, give Rocky a try: log in with your UC Davis credentials, and ask about anything, from “Which dining commons serve vegan lunches?” to “What’s the deadline to submit that grant proposal?” Rocky might surprise you with a helpful answer.
And if you’re part of a department, student org, or research group: think ahead. Whether you need fast access to policy documents, curated research tools, or campus-specific guidance, Aggie AI is building a future where information is as nimble and responsive as our community needs it to be.