Generative AI may be helping businesses and consumers alike as of tax season, as Intuit rolls out Assist, an AI assistant designed to bring new functionality to TurboTax, QuickBooks, and more. Credit: Shutterstock 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. Related content news analysis Apple earnings: About that iPhone 'slump' in China Based on information from Thursday's earnings report, it seems that data pointing to an iPhone slump in China were over-baked. By Jonny Evans May 03, 2024 9 mins iMac iPhone Apple news Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams Microsoft is encouraging Teams customers to move to the new, faster version of the collaboration app; the older version will be switched off next year. By Matthew Finnegan May 03, 2024 3 mins Microsoft Teams Collaboration Software Productivity Software news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe