Intuit debuts generative AI for QuickBooks, TurboTax, and other major products

Financial services and small-business software provider Intuit will be rolling out an “Intuit Assist” feature to all of its major product lines, including TurboTax and QuickBooks, building on the development of its own generative AI operating system.

GenOS, as the company calls its new operating system, was unveiled in June and is the basis for the Assist feature, announced Wednesday. Intuit said that its own customer data created a competitive advantage in building GenOS, and that the large language models (LLMs) behind the operating system — which Intuit itself developed — are specialized for solving challenges faced by Intuit’s customers, including tax, accounting, marketing and personal finance.

GenOS lets Intuit create AI features for its entire product family

There are four core components to GenOS, the company said: GenStudio is a specialized development environment that allows Intuit developers to rapidly iterate on the company’s AI-related products; GenRuntime selects LLMs and data sets for a given task dynamically; GenUX provides a unified user experience for all AI products; and the underlying financial LLMs provide the actual decision-making power.

All of that means that Intuit Assist is either available or soon to be so for Credit Karma, TurboTax, QuickBooks and Mailchimp, according to the company.

Assist will provide different functionality to each product, with Credit Karma users gaining much more customized financial advice thanks to AI-based personalization. TurboTax will essentially automate access to much of the company’s extensive knowledge base and provide customized checklists for filing, while QuickBooks will gain basic ERP functionality based on an AI-powered ability to identify strong-selling products and “cashflow hotspots.” Finally, Mailchimp will link with QuickBooks to provide customized draft email content, and help draft marketing messaging and track customer data.

“Entrepreneurs and small businesses don’t have access to the same resources their larger enterprise competitors do,” Intuit said via email.  “[W]e’ve always believed that there’s an opportunity to help businesses of all sizes, and consumers around the world, thrive and succeed.”

The company was measured in its answer to a question about whether new AI-powered functionality would allow it to expand beyond its current customer base of largely small businesses, but did mention that the new features could help mid-market businesses. Some of those, according to Intuit, “struggle to manage complexity using spreadsheets and disconnected apps. Roughly one-third suffer through manual or offline tools and lack financial management software.”

Intuit Assist is currently available for TurboTax users, some Credit Karma users, and select Mailchimp and Quickbooks customers. The feature will be available for all users of those products “within the coming months,” according to the company.