Intuit, the leading U.S. financial and accounting software company, has launched its first generative AI-powered digital assistant, designed to support small businesses and consumers.
Named Intuit Assist, this innovative tool is integrated across Intuit's suite of products, including TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp. With a consistent user interface, Intuit Assist provides tailored recommendations by utilizing contextual data for over 100 million customers globally. When necessary, the assistant also enables users to access live human support through Intuit’s platform.
Developed using Intuit's proprietary generative AI operating system, GenOS, which was introduced in June, this digital assistant allows Intuit developers to seamlessly integrate AI features across their products.
Within TurboTax, Intuit Assist taps into the company's extensive tax expertise and proprietary AI-powered Tax Knowledge Engine. It assesses each user's unique tax situation, navigating the complexities of the tax code to create personalized tax checklists. Based on the information shared at the beginning of the tax preparation, the assistant delivers tailored answers, insights, and recommendations. Additionally, it works in conjunction with TurboTax Live to provide personalized responses, leveraging aggregated insights.
For Credit Karma users, the digital assistant offers customized solutions to their financial queries. By analyzing users’ financial data, Intuit Assist delivers specific recommendations aligned with their needs.
When it comes to QuickBooks, this assistant aids small businesses by pinpointing financial hotspots and identifying top-selling products or unusual spending patterns. It assists newcomers in setting up QuickBooks by importing data from their websites to customize their profiles. Furthermore, Intuit Assist can generate invoice reminders, offering customizable options in tone and content.
For entrepreneurs and marketers utilizing Mailchimp for email campaigns, the generative AI-based assistant personalizes marketing efforts, creating campaigns that resonate with their brand identity and market goals. It enables quick adjustments in tone, text, and imagery, and assists in scheduling campaigns while integrating automated draft content using product and service data from QuickBooks. It can also help businesses track leads and manage sales pipelines within Mailchimp for longer sales cycles.
At the heart of Intuit Assist is GenOS, composed of four main components: GenStudio for engaging with large language models, GenRuntime for seamless orchestration, GenUX for user-facing applications, and the large language models themselves, encompassing both in-house and third-party models.
Ashok Srivastava, Intuit’s chief data officer, explained that GenOS is designed to fluidly transition between Intuit's in-house models and those developed externally, avoiding a fragmented solution landscape.
“We see other companies investing in large language models, and that's commendable. However, we’re not just investing; we’re building a comprehensive operating system on top of it,” Srivastava noted in an interview.
Intuit recognizes the importance of AI and has focused on it for a while. CEO Sasan Goodarzi has highlighted the company's commitment to AI, even going as far as restructuring its workforce in 2020 to facilitate this transition.
This proactive approach has yielded impressive results, with Intuit reporting 810 million AI-driven customer interactions annually, over 25 million natural language processing conversations processed each year, and significant advances in machine learning predictions and models.
“We began investing in generative AI before it became a major trend,” Srivastava remarked. “Our aim is to create transformative experiences for our customers, which will ultimately advance our business objectives.”
Nevertheless, integrating generative AI comes with challenges, particularly around customer privacy, which is critical due to the sensitive financial data Intuit handles. To address these concerns, the company has established a governance framework focused on transparency and compliance with privacy regulations.
“We review and ensure all AI applications align with our core principles. This includes promoting prosperity, enhancing human capabilities, fairness, and accountability, while ensuring that we support those historically excluded from financial services,” Srivastava explained.
Another challenge facing generative AI is the phenomenon of "hallucination," where AI systems produce inaccurate or entirely fictional content. No generative AI model has completely resolved this issue, and the implications can be severe, especially in tax and financial contexts.
However, Srivastava stated that Intuit’s extensive and relevant datasets are critical in delivering “accurate answers to customers” and reducing the risk of inaccuracies.
“When Intuit Assist responds to a query, it draws on our deep expertise and a comprehensive understanding of the customer, which ensures relevance and accuracy,” he said.
Currently, Intuit Assist is available to TurboTax users, with enhancements expected in the 2023 tax season. It is also being rolled out to select Credit Karma members in the U.S., with broader availability planned for the coming months. Similarly, QuickBooks users will soon be able to access the assistant, while a specific group of Mailchimp users will also benefit from its features in the near future.
“By leveraging our extensive data and long-standing investment in AI, we're redefining AI-assisted customer experiences,” Goodarzi concluded.
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