How the ChatGPT-Intuit Partnership Exposes Your Financial Data

What to Know Before You Give ChatGPT Access to Your Quickbooks Data

When I read this TechCrunch article last week, warning flags instantly popped up. Intuit and ChatGPT announced their $100 million partnership where ChatGPT will gain access to Intuit customers' data. Obviously, this access is done with the customer's permission, but what happens next is a gamechanger.

Before we get into how this integration can impact your company, let's look at how these two apps connect and share data. The Intuit apps — QuickBooks, MailChimp, TurboTax — connect to ChatGPT using one of two methods. The one most likely to be used is (too) easy to implement.

Finding Apps depends on some of the features and version you're using. I found this option in Settings -> Apps -> Connectors.

What Can ChatGPT Do with Your QuickBooks Data?

Since QuickBooks is the most commonly used Intuit business product (with the greatest risks), let's talk about QBO. To answer the how-does-it-work question, I turned to ChatGPT. Intuit hasn't published details about this integration yet so I'll be following closely for updates. Intuit built the connector to ChatGPT so capabilities will likely evolve over time as they learn how customers are using this data sharing.

What this connector does now:

What this connector can't do now:

Warning Flags to Think About

According to TechCrunch, Intuit's integration differs from existing ChatGPT apps because it will be used for tasks that can directly influence a company's financial decisions. Such uses have raised concerns about the reliability of AI systems, which can produce incorrect or misleading answers.

Where Is the Liability When Things Go Off the Rails?

This is the first red flag that came to mind when I read the article. How does sharing data access change the accountability and liability landscape?

SaaS providers have effectively dodged liability when a third-party product or service is integrated with their product. If you read the typical Terms of Service or Terms and Conditions agreement, the wording is unambiguous: look, over there. Read the third-party provider's Terms of Service. We've abdicated responsibility to them.

Intuit hasn't changed their Terms of Service (yet anyway) to address their new ChatGPT partnership. For now, we, the trusting customer, are still left responsible for the decisions we make.

When Bruce Chan from Intuit was asked about risks, this is what he said.

“Intuit employs multiple validation methods and utilizes large domain-specific datasets to minimize the risk of errors or “hallucinated” responses,” Bruce Chan, a spokesperson for Intuit, told TechCrunch.

“When our AI provides an answer or gives guidance to a customer, it's drawing on the deep expertise that Intuit has developed over many years, plus the data that gives us a 360-degree view of the customer,” Chan said. “This helps make sure the answer given is relevant and grounded in the customer's own data, and reflects Intuit's years of domain expertise.”

"Chan said Intuit continues to stand behind the accuracy guarantees offered through its products, including TurboTax, but did not clarify when asked if the company or the customer would be on the hook for errors that result from AI-generated recommendations or insights.”

Magical Speaking

This was a lot of puffery and fairy dust speak. The reality is the best that these fancy validation words can ensure is that errors might be reduced. They don't guarantee error-free information that can impact your company.

While AI can assist in producing results, the simple reality is when you click you own the outcome. Unless Intuit — or any third-party provider — explicitly says they're responsible for their app's mistake, we are accountable for the decisions we make.

No Backup Support

One of the complaints I've had with QuickBooks Online is the absence of any full backup support. Only the QuickBooks Advanced version, which most companies don't purchase, offers a backup and restore option. For a product that is so integral to a company's financial management and health, this is a blatant failure.

Now that we've invited an AI tool into our financial decision-making, the need for a backup and restore capability is even more important. Yes, ChatGPT supposedly can't modify your company's data, but rouge AI actions happen. How will you know that your data has changed? What do you do next? There's no recovery.

We'll talk more about what to do before you integrate ChatGPT and Intuit products in next week's email.

The Vending Machine Thinker

A LinkedIn poster made this self-assured comment, and it's an alarming thing to hear. He said, “I don't need to know how AI works. I just need to know what button to push to get the answer I want.” This vending machine mindset exists when people are lazy, lack an ounce of curiosity, or have fallen for the get-it-done-fast hype.

As you, your team, your financial partners, and AI work together, be aware of the vending machine thinkers. You don't need to become an AI algorithm engineer. But you do need a foundational understanding of how AI works.

Where does AI get its data?
How is AI's predictive answer model different than the familiar Google search?
Why are AI tools confident when they're wrong?
How has our job as humans changed?
Unlike most of the tech tools we depend on daily, AI impacts us in ways we've not seen before.

Wrapping It Up

There is no question that AI-assisted financial activities can be useful for calculating, summarizing, streamlining, and translating financial words into relatable business insights. What AI cannot do is replace human judgment and sound decision-making practices. AI supports and complements human expertise. AI cannot replace your accountant or CFO.