Finance platform Intuit intros generative AI capability

Generative AI operating system

Introduced in June, GenOS is built on four elements.

First is GenStudio, an environment that enables Intuit's engineers to train and refine LLMs. The second is GenRuntime, which enables Intuit to use multiple LLMs. The technology uses OpenAI's GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, running on Microsoft Azure. Intuit also uses AWS Bedrock to run its LLMs based on open source models. Third is GenUX, a library of UI components that enables transparency when engineers interact with the LLMs. Finally, the financial LLMs are custom-trained to address tax, accounting, marketing, cash flow and personal finance problems.

"It provides personalized intelligent recommendations, and really it's about removing the work from our customers and doing the work for them," said Alex Balazs, CTO at Intuit.

A different financial product

Intuit Assist is the product of the finance vendor's work with AI over the past few years, according to Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

What stands out most is the degree of accuracy required to pull this off successfully.

"What stands out most is the degree of accuracy required to pull this off successfully," Moorhead said. "I don't think Intuit was rushed and has been working on generative AI for years. I would be concerned if AI and cloud were new to the company. They aren't new."

Consumers and businesses can get deep and accurate recommendations about finance that they don't usually get with traditional AI with Intuit Assist. Users can also ask complex questions and get correct answers, Moorhead added.

"This is quite new for any kind of financial program," he said.

Intuit Assist is trained with general documents such as tax forms and accounting and tax law documents. However, the LLMs in Intuit Assist don't hold on to personal data, according to Balazs.

"When you send it through the prompt, the LLM doesn't remember that information," he said. "It uses it for that specific prompt and then forgets it. Through that, we do send personal information because it allows us to personalize that request to that exact customer."

While it's impossible to protect everyone's data all the time, Moorhead said he has confidence that Intuit can protect its customers' finance data because of the vendor's cloud experience.

But besides being mindful of data leakage, Intuit needs to be careful about generative AI hallucinations and inaccuracies, Moorhead added.

"Intuit will need to closely monitor Assist to ensure it cannot be trained on inaccurate data and 'drift,'" he said. "While using its own LLM reduces that likelihood, the company needs to monitor constantly."

Intuit Assist is currently available in limited beta for some Intuit products. Mailchimp customers can access the feature now, and late tax filers can use it in TurboTax. It will be rolled out in QuickBooks and Credit Karma in the next few weeks.

Esther Ajao is a news writer covering artificial intelligence software and systems.