Intuit's chief AI officer, Ashok Srivastava, discusses taking advantage of AI agents for real results.Joao-Pierre S. Ruth/InformationWeek

Rumblings about the AI-fueled SaaSpocalypse decimating the software scene have not rattled Intuit's chief AI officer, Ashok Srivastava. Moreover, he said his team's disciplined approach to AI is delivering faster development and boosting subscriptions among customers.

Srivastava caught up with InformationWeek after his panel discussion at the Bloomberg Generative AI Forum on June 9 in New York City. 

According to Srivastava, the would-be implosion of the SaaS market in the wake of AI's ascension might actually be part of an ongoing cycle. He said SaaS companies are always evolving and, parenthetically, cited the quote often attributed to Mark Twain about early reports of their demise. 

"What we're seeing today is that companies are transforming themselves, and there are new entrants into the market, and there are changes that need to happen, that's for sure," Srivastava said.

AI agents, though relatively new to the scene, are already proving they can help Intuit shorten its production cycles. "We use agentic coding capabilities," he said. "We're seeing a 40% increase in our speed in the last year and a factor of 12 increase in development velocity over the last five years."

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Intuit is the financial software provider behind QuickBooks, TurboTax, Credit Karma and other products used by small businesses, accountants and consumers. Srivastava, who previously served as the company's chief data officer, has been with Intuit for nine years. He said he started the AI team at the company and built the AI platform, as well as other platforms for Intuit.

In a prior role, he was a principal scientist at NASA, where he led R&D in machine learning and data mining for NASA Enterprises. 

Is AI the Grim Reaper for Saas?

Rather than view AI as the harbinger of SaaS's demise, Srivastava focused on the benefits he sees in the technology. "We have the opportunity to accelerate ourselves with AI and agents," he said.

At the same time, Srivastava acknowledged the seismic shifts AI has wrought, though that might not change what the market ultimately needs. 

"AI is going to be something that does get commoditized, but people will still want to know that their workloads, their compliance needs are being done accurately," he said.

For example, he noted that QuickBooks Live subscriptions doubled in the last year with the inclusion of AI. "That means that people want it more. And that's why I feel that the industry is going to change for sure," Srivastava said. He also noted that customers' embrace of AI in the software came with a sense that his company would remain involved and supportive as the technology continues to spread.

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Some of the results are already visible. Intuit's use of AI agents includes an accounting agent that has shortened payment processing time for small business users, Srivastava said. 

"They're 10% more likely to be paid in full. They are companies that are saving about a dozen hours per month. And as a former small business owner, I can tell you those are transformational numbers," he said.

Other AI-powered offerings from Intuit are gaining traction. He said the company saw a 73% year-over-year increase with the QuickBooks Capital, AI-powered platform. "That means that as we're able to produce more loans for people as they get accepted into that process, they're able to pay their employees, their suppliers and so forth at a very rapid scale," Srivastava said.

Saying 'No' to tokenmaxxing

There is one AI-trend he has not pushed on his team: Tokenmaxxing. Some companies have adopted this strategy of directing staff to spend as many AI tokens as possible to prove they are leveraging AI to the fullest, but this has often shown to be an expensive approach to using AI.

"Intuit is a very disciplined company. We don't make investments in things like tokenmaxxing because, in my opinion, it has little if anything to do with serving the end customer," he said.

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Remaining disciplined with its AI adoption also reflects Intuit's need to remain compliant with policies that govern the financial space — yet Srivastava said the company still manages to move swiftly with the technology.

"We're in a very regulated environment. As the former chief data officer, now as the chief AI officer, I'm very familiar with the regulatory landscape. I work very closely with our legal, privacy and other teams in this regard," he said.

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