QuickBooks Unveils New Study during National
Small Business Week
In honor of National Small Business Week, Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU)
has unveiled “Small Business in the Age of AI” a research study
that examines the uses of cutting edge automation technology now
and in the future, as well as entrepreneurs’ attitudes about this
emerging tech and the opportunities it presents. The study,
conducted with Emergent Research, found that overwhelmingly, small
businesses are bullish on the technology and are already leveraging
automation tech to manage and grow their businesses, ultimately
helping to grow the global economy.
The study surveyed 550 small business owners and managers and
found that small businesses view automation technology positively,
with 54 percent saying they view automation technology primarily as
an opportunity. While fear of technological innovation is often
referenced as the underlying barrier for adoption of machine
learning and artificial intelligence (AI), only five percent of
respondents said they see automation primarily as a threat. In
fact, very few small businesses think that automation technology
will lead to job losses, with almost a third (31 percent) saying
automation will allow them to grow their employee base, 59 percent
saying there will be no difference and just one percent saying
there will be significant job losses.
The study also found that of those surveyed, 66 percent were
already using automation technologies to help them with a variety
of functions, including: finance and billing (29 percent),
marketing (28 percent), sales (27 percent), customer service (25
percent), operations (15 percent) and production (nine
percent).
“We recognize the power and importance of small businesses – not
only to individual communities but to the entire global economy. At
QuickBooks, we’re focused on harnessing the power of innovative
technology to improve the lives of our small business customers –
giving them more time, money, connections and insights to run their
businesses effectively and efficiently, because we understand that
when they succeed, we all do,” said Alex Chriss, Chief Product
Officer, Small Business Group, at Intuit. “It’s encouraging that
small business owners view automation tech as an opportunity – not
a threat – and are embracing these breakthrough technologies for
the betterment of their businesses. In fact, our QuickBooks
customers are using features like Auto Categorization daily to
automate previously tedious processes, opening their time up to
better serve customers and grow their business.”
The study found that small business owners see vital benefits of
automation technology, namely freeing up time to get more work done
(79 percent), helping with customer service (77 percent), and
boosting innovation (74 percent). These improvements are being
driven by leading edge automation tech, including big data
analytics (24 percent), natural language processing (17 percent),
machine learning (12 percent) and artificial intelligence (11
percent).
Intuit Customers Leading with Automation
Intuit customers are already leveraging automation technologies,
including AI and machine learning, to automate tasks that might
otherwise take valuable time and money. In fact, by incorporating
automation capabilities into Intuit products, small businesses can
easily make their data in QuickBooks work more effectively for
them, with benefits ranging from tax savings to categorization of
expenses, which can be time-consuming tasks. Through the QuickBooks
product vision and the power of the QuickBooks ecosystem, Intuit is
transforming how people work for themselves, intelligently
anticipating critical turning points and making customers smarter
and more confident in the decisions they need to make for their
business. Current automation features within the QuickBooks product
suite include:
- QuickBooks Auto Categorization: Doing
the categorization or organization for you, QuickBooks Auto
Categorization learns from your previous transactions what an
expense, income or mileage should be categorized as, and
automatically files for you in the appropriate category.
- QuickBooks Payments Automated
Invoicing: Small business owners spend hours every day on the
tedious process of invoicing and billing their clients. Automated
invoicing features within QuickBooks allow businesses to keep track
of which accounts are paid and which ones are overdue, schedule
invoices for reoccurring accounts, and quickly convert estimates to
invoices.
- QuickBooks Self-Employed ExpenseFinder:
Harnessing the power of machine learning, ExpenseFinder
automatically identifies business expenses by combing through bank
and credit card transactions. Going back as far as one calendar
year, the feature helps users compile possible deductions, the same
way he or she would by sitting with a box of receipts and a stack
of accountant statements.
Small Business and Automation Today
Many small businesses are using automation technology today –
including the above features from QuickBooks – though they may not
recognize it by name. However, they certainly recognize the
benefits it provides.
“In the last year and a half, my business has grown in a way
that it was not able to previously. Part of that is because of
automation. By automating some of my basic business processes, I’ve
been able to free up my bandwidth for other projects. Things like
invoice creation used to be a nightmare and would take forever. Now
I don’t even have to think about it.” – Jake Feldman, Nexus
Academics
“As a handcrafted accessories company, we believe in the quality
and integrity of doing things by hand. But when it comes to our
business systems, technology and automation is key. It speeds
things up and leaves less room for error. With QuickBooks, for
example, reports are automated and categorized for me. It’s
plug-and-play after you get it set up. Once the ground work is in
place, it takes care of itself.” – Theresa Lee, Future Glory
Small Business and Automation in the Future
In the future, small businesses expect automation to have
continued benefits. Over the next five years, respondents said that
the top five reasons automation will have a positive impact include
business efficiency (73 percent), productivity (68 percent),
innovation (62 percent), responsiveness to market changes (60
percent) and revenue (59 percent).
“In the future, small businesses can put technology to work to
automate their businesses, get work done more easily and quickly,
and make better decisions,” said Laurie McCabe, a partner at SMB
Group. “The good news is that companies such as Intuit are
super-charging many of their applications with new technologies to
provide these capabilities to small businesses in the applications
they already use – so they can take advantage of new technologies
without a lot of heavy-lifting."
For more information on “Small Business in the Age of AI,”
please visit the report, as well as SMB Group’s recent report that
details how technology trends will influence small businesses.
About Intuit
Intuit’s mission is to Power Prosperity Around
the World. Its global products and platforms,
including TurboTax,
QuickBooks, Mint and Turbo, are designed
to empower consumers, self-employed, and small
businesses to improve their financial lives, finding them more
money with the least amount of work, while giving them complete
confidence in their actions and decisions. Intuit’s innovative
ecosystem of financial management solutions serves partners
and 46 million customers worldwide, unleashing the power of
many for the prosperity of one. For the latest news and
in-depth information about Intuit and its
brands, visit Intuit.com and follow
on Facebook.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180430005468/en/
Intuit Inc.Danielle Ernst,
650-944-2391Danielle_Ernst@intuit.comorAccess CommunicationsJen
Garcia, 415-844-6244jeng@accesstheagency.com
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