Last week in New York City, Intuit® brought together the innovators, products and technology experiments that are changing the lives of its 42 million customers at its Innovation Gallery Walk. Dubbed “The Intelligent Economy,” the event offered 26 demos showcasing the power of Intuit’s ecosystem. We’ve already showcased SmartMirror and Virtual Reality. Let’s take a closer look at two of the technologies poised to help customers and accounting professionals prosper!

You read my mind

We’ve all been there – stressed at our desks because the technology powering our financial management tools isn’t quite up to snuff. It might be cold or impersonal, or perhaps it doesn’t provide a uniform experience for all users. We’re left with questions, feeling frustrated and confused.

At Intuit, we certainly don’t want you to feel that way! We want to know how you’re feeling every step of the way so that we can adjust to what you need. How can we do that? Well, imagine if your software could interpret your facial expression and change your user experience based on your current state of emotion. We’re experimenting with emotion detection to help discern emotions that drive a better end user product experience. For example, you could see this type of technology being used during tax season to help explain to a user why he/she is not receiving a tax refund based on his/her facial expression.

By incorporating this type of technology into financial management tools, customers are empowered to manage finances through a more personalized experience. As more financial tasks become digitized, empathetic user experiences are critical to deliver a high-quality customer experience.

We’re still exploring this technology, but we’re well on our way to experimenting with this as a new, innovative technology that can help both customers and accounting professionals.

Talk to me!

For many accounting professionals, managing the business’ finances, as well as their clients’ finances, can be an intimidating task. At Intuit, we always ask ourselves how we can make our customers’ lives easier. Sometimes, that means giving the customer a little help by acting as an assistant.

According to The Economist, over 2.5 billion people have at least one messaging app installed. That’s a lot of apps! But, because that conversation is a natural way to communicate, it’s no surprise that messaging apps and conversational user interfaces (CUI) are so popular. We think that with the spread of CUI, we could improve the lives of customers by incorporating this technology into our product.

The chatbot experiment enables accounting professionals to run their business more intelligently and efficiently through voice or text. It uses advancements in machine learning and natural language processing to create a native mobile app experience that helps users better manage their business through QuickBooks®. The app allows businesses to operate QuickBooks via their smartphone by simply asking questions or stating requests. How simple is that?

What’s more, the app provides a dynamic user experience that goes beyond a traditional chatbot. For example, when generating an invoice, the team can create an image carousel that is responsive to the user’s viewing for a better experience, as opposed to providing regular static images.

Stay tuned for more examples of how we are exploring emerging technologies to better serve our customers!