Hi! I'm Nicole, a digital product designer with 9+ years of experience

A new AI platform with a fundamental data problem

Intuit Intelligence, a new conversational AI platform, promised QuickBooks customers AI-powered insights about business performance. But over 60% of customer books had incomplete or inaccurate data, causing the AI to generate misleading answers.

As design lead for conversational AI across the Accounting team, I needed to solve a fundamental trust problem — how do you design an AI that admits when it doesn't have reliable data?

Intuit Intelligence — the conversational AI platform embedded across QuickBooks

Confident answers built on broken foundations

Business owners asking "How are my expenses trending?" received confident-sounding answers built on broken foundations — unposted transactions, disconnected bank feeds, uncategorized entries. The AI couldn't communicate that its data was incomplete, resulting in critical business decisions based on wrong information.

The design challenge: fundamentally rethinking how AI communicates uncertainty and guides resolution within a conversational experience.

AI delivering confident-sounding analysis — even with incomplete underlying data

Profitability insights with actionable recommendations and transparent data caveats

A progressive trust model — crawl, walk, run

I designed using a progressive trust model, acknowledging that users need to build confidence in AI assistance over time alongside achieving business objectives. Our first phase: detect issues and explain what's wrong, why it matters, and the impact. Then — only after users understand what's happening — offer one-click "done-for-you" resolutions.

The AI companion in context — proactive, personalized insights surfaced directly on the QB home screen

Data double-check — the AI proactively flags issues and offers guided, one-click resolution paths

AI that earns trust by admitting what it doesn't know

I designed a three-phase integration: in-context error detection maintaining conversational flow, guided resolution conversations feeling like a trusted advisor, and "done-for-you" automation with full transparency showing exactly what the AI will change and why.

Guided resolution — clear next steps surfaced directly in the conversation

In-context AI panel — data quality issues surfaced alongside the transactions that caused them

A portal masquerading as a platform

Accounting firms manage hundreds of clients, yet QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) only functioned as a portal to individual client books. Firms were forced to use spreadsheets or third-party tools like Keeper to manage month-end close — jumping between dozens of QuickBooks files to understand status and review work.

Only 3–5% of firms used the existing Books Review feature. As design lead, I saw an opportunity to transform QBOA from a simple portal into a comprehensive books closing platform — and a key monetization driver for Intuit's Accounting Suite strategy.

Books Close — a new platform entry point positioning QBOA as a full close management hub

The redesigned file review — tasks, reconciliations, and status unified in a single view

Hours lost to file-hopping and status checks

Practice directors needed quality control across entire client portfolios, but had to open each client's QuickBooks file individually to check reconciliations, categorization, and catch coding errors. Without standardized processes, accountants sometimes forgot critical steps or missed errors — spending hours on status checks instead of high-value advisory work.

Co-presenting research synthesis at an Intuit practitioner council — mapping pain points directly from accountant interviews

Bank reconciliation — all accounts, balances, and statement dates visible in one list with one-click reconcile actions

Dramatic click reduction across every key job

I designed a centralized Books Close hub with customizable templates, AI-powered anomaly detection, and role-based workflows — giving firms a single source of truth for every client's month-end status.

Financial review — final sign-off steps with role-based assignments and one-click report access

AI transaction review — historical vendor context and smart categorization suggestions surfaced inline

QuickBooks' competitive advantage for accounting firms

This became QuickBooks' competitive advantage and a cornerstone of Intuit's Accounting Suite monetization strategy. The work was featured on the main stage at Intuit Connect, for transforming how accounting firms operate.

By designing for firm-level efficiency, I created a system that scales with practice growth — turning hours of status checking into minutes of strategic review.

"The direction that they're going with is incredible. This is amazing… to have everything within the QuickBooks ecosystem." — Hector Garcia, CPA & Influencer