You may be aware, from my QuickBooks Monday Minute feature on September 16th titled, "Where is QuickBooks Going?", that I was able to magnify information from Intuit's 4th-quarter and End-of-Year financial disclosures, including their 'forward-looking' statements, released to shareholders in late August, to conclude that Intuit was on the verge of releasing a new all-in-one product most likely named 'Intuit something' rather than 'QuickBooks something.'
The following day, Intuit announced 'Intuit Enterprise Suite.'
On that day, in our Breaking News feature regarding the announcement of Intuit Enterprise Suite, we told you we would try to ensure you knew as much as possible about what this new solution will mean, what it will do, and how that will impact both those it's intended to service and those individuals in our community who have traditionally serviced Intuit solutions (ProAdvisors, Accountants, Bookkeepers, and Business Consultants).
Accordingly, let's look at one of the features described in the information available regarding Intuit Enterprise Suite and see if we can determine the what and how of the feature description.
While we've been given glimpses of the functional capabilities of Intuit Enterprise Suite, "the how" and "exactly what" has been very limited. By taking the various press announcements found within Intuit blogs, along with last week's press announcement released during their Annual Investor Day event, we can start to see how 'pinned together' by artificial intelligence (AI) this new solution is.
Sasan Goodarzi, Intuit's chief executive officer, said in the September 26 Press Release regarding Investor's Day, "Intuit is the global AI-driven expert platform that is powering prosperity for consumers, small and mid-market businesses. We have incredible momentum as we transform how we serve our customers by doing the hard work for them and connecting them with AI-powered expertise to fuel their success."
One example of this can be found in Intuit Enterprise Suite's ability to 'Accelerate payables and receivables,' claiming to streamline cash flow with integrated workflow automation and advanced controls, all with preferred transaction rates.
One of the product webpages says the new solution offers 'Streamlined payables and receivables,' 'Bill payment & scheduling,' 'Automated approvals & collections,' and 'Preferred transaction rates,' which essentially bullet-point the same information found elsewhere. Except for the disclosure regarding rates, only a few additional statements about this functionality can be found on the various Intuit Enterprise Suite webpages.
What you do find reflects a brief description of how A/P and A/R will use AI-powered transactions to reduce manual work and human error, how product users will "Get paid 4 times faster…", and how invoicing and bills will be automated with customized approvals.
Nevertheless, when you track it down, there is an answer. This doesn't require a crystal ball or magnifying glass; it's printed in black and white in another Intuit Investor Day event associated Press Release, 'Intuit Pioneers Done-for-You Future for Consumers and Business with Agentic AI.'
That press release contains multiple sentences within a few paragraphs revealing the 'how to' of the A/P and A/R features of Intuit Enterprise Suite wherein the release specifies, "For consumers, businesses, and experts, Intuit agentic AI use cases will eliminate routine tasks so they can focus on higher value activities. Agentic AI workflows will dynamically determine the right sequence of operations, executed by specialized AI agents to achieve goals and complete tasks autonomously, with human direction and oversight."
The same press release reports, "…agentic AI-powered workflows are in production now in limited release for dynamically processing accounts receivable and accounts payable (AR/AP) tasks. This includes processing of relevant customer artifacts, including user-submitted images, documents, and emails, and then orchestrating any necessary follow-up AR/AP specific actions to specialized AI agents (e.g., invoice processing agent, bill creation agent) for the customer's review. These AI agents handle specific tasks, completing the customer's workflow with precision and efficiency. By automating routine administrative activities, the business owner can focus on what matters most: growing their business. This capability is expected to be generally available in late 2024."
As we can see, the promotional claims made around A/R and A/P functionality for Intuit Enterprise Suite are apparently based on Intuit's new Agentic AI systems doing the "hard work on behalf of consumers and businesses, complemented by personalized AI-driven insights and recommendations," with a seamless path to bookkeeping experts whenever needed.
In other words, the AI-SaaS will do your AR and AP work for you, and if the AI-SaaS can't do it, then Intuit's human (bookkeeping) experts, assisted by the AI-SaaS, will do the work for you.