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Embracing technology can have a meaningful impact on small businesses and help them stay competitive in a challenging economic environment. A recent study found that U.S. small businesses using eight or more digital tools to manage different departments are almost twice as likely to report revenue growth and almost three times more likely to have expanded their workforce compared to small businesses using up to two digital tools.
“The future is coming so fast. In many ways, it’s here,” says Ashok Srivastava, Intuit’s senior vice president and chief data officer, discussing Intuit Assist, a new generative AI assistant launched by Intuit, the global financial technology platform. The platform can help small business owners make data-informed decisions, manage cash flow and develop and deploy new marketing campaigns.
Intuit Assist is backed by Intuit’s custom Generative AI Operating System, or GenOS. Srivastava calls it a revolutionary approach to AI development that allows the company’s thousands of developers to rapidly scale new AI capabilities across the Intuit product portfolio in line with Intuit’s Responsible AI Principles. These capabilities are built on years of investment in AI/GenAI, a robust data platform and powerful analytics.
“We are making investments to enable our customers to make the very best financial decisions possible, shifting the burden of work to the platform, so that the platform does the work for the customer with their permission,” Srivastava says.
“We are making investments to enable our customers to make the very best financial decisions possible, shifting the burden of work to the platform, so that the platform does the work for the customer with their permission.”
— Ashok Srivastava, Chief Data Officer, Intuit
Intuit has built a proprietary GenAI Operating System (GenOS) to mobilize its global tech organization—software developers, machine learning engineers, data scientists and product managers—to accelerate ongoing development of fintech products, with privacy, security and responsible AI and data governance built in.
“We’re not solely fixated on large language models,” Srivastava says. “They’re amazing, but on their own they’re not sufficient to deliver powerful experiences. This is why we created GenOS. GenOS provides the tools necessary to harness the power of GenAI and unlock massive customer benefits.”
“Operating systems are powerful vehicles,” says Srivastava. “They let developers create applications without dealing with the complexities of the CPU, data in, data out, security, user interface—they abstract all that away. Similarly, GenOS abstracts all that away for Intuit developers.”
Srivastava outlines four major components comprising Intuit’s industry-leading GenOS.
• GenStudio lets developers design capabilities powered by GenAI. Functions built with GenStudio come with safeguards that help to protect our customers’ privacy and data.
• GenRuntime replaces traditional programming with large language models for logic and reasoning, providing mechanisms for grounding them with customer data for accuracy, so developers can build new features more quickly. “GenRuntime is a powerful component of GenOS because it enables the large language model to engage with the platform directly,” says Srivastava.
• GenUX defines a common interface for users to interact with AI-powered features across Intuit’s products, improving the user experience.
• Large language models models specialize in solving tax, accounting, marketing, cash flow and personal finance challenges. Custom-trained financial LLMs can provide actionable insights and invoke actions like contacting human experts.
Srivastava says Intuit has spent a decade on its AI strategy, organizing its data to power its platforms. The company now runs two million models in production, generates 65 billion machine learning predictions daily and delivers 810 million AI-driven customer interactions (including 25 million conversations using natural language processing) a year. Open-source code and internal development leading to 900 (and counting) AI, machine learning and data science patent assets make it all work.
Intuit Assist, launched in 2023, spans multiple finance and marketing products, including TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks and Mailchimp. “Intuit Assist is built on top of GenOS and designed to help our 100 million customers make better financial decisions, with full confidence,” says Srivastava.
The system will deliver personalized insights, such as suggestions for managing a business’s cash flow. Now available in beta and rolling out more broadly in the coming months, Intuit Assist for Mailchimp and QuickBooks will act like a support staff for small business owners, leading one marketing agency owner to call it a “game-changer” that dramatically reduces the amount of time she spends on support functions, allowing her to give more attention to her clients.
The technology uses AI to understand user questions and answer them in concise, natural language. On request, it can connect users with tax and bookkeeping experts, for instance, who come to the interaction with full details of each customer’s inquiry to save time and improve service. “That transition from AI-driven experience to a human experience is seamless,” Srivastava says.
For Srivastava and his team, it’s all in service of the greater good. “I feel we have an unprecedented opportunity to bring artificial intelligence and data together to enable prosperity for real people around the world,” he says. “People are excited to work at Intuit because we’re making a difference in people’s lives.”
Intuit Assist functionality (beta) is available to certain users. Mailchimp and Quickbooks sold separately. Integration available. Information is intended to outline product direction but represents no obligation and should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision.
