AI tax assistants, and other tech stories you may have missed

March 13, 2024 5:35 PM

H&R Block's AI chatbot assistant, a deepfake scam rakes in $25 million, 18 tools to automate a business, and seven other developments in technology from the past month, and how they'll impact your clients and your firm.

1. H&R Block offers AI chatbot assistant

Scott Eells/Bloomberg

H&R Block has a new tool for tax filers — AI Tax Assist. Powered by Microsoft Azure, the AI assistant will help people answer specific questions about their taxes and simplify the filing process. The service is available at no extra charge when filing through H&R Block's system. (Source: TechRadar)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Can you rely on this stuff for accurate recommendations? Concerns have been raised about accuracy issues given reports of AI producing false information or hallucinations when asked certain questions. Developers along with H&R Block have taken steps to minimize these incidents by "leveraging data from The Tax Institute and experience of more than 60,000 tax professionals," as stated in a company press release. I'm a big fan of generative AI tools like this because — like this tool — provides an expert assistant at your fingertips. But who still doesn't check their assistant?

2. Deepfake tricks employee into giving away $25M

Ivelin Radkov/Ivelin Radkov - Fotolia

With cybercrime forecasted to cost $9.4 trillion this year, a recent incident out of Hong Kong is one of the latest examples. A finance employee was defrauded of $25 million after he received deepfake messages from someone posing as his boss. According to reports, the employee joined a video call with the CFO of the company and the employee's colleagues. The end result: 15 transfers were made into five local bank accounts despite the employee noticing "something was off" during the call. His suspicions were proved right, as it was later discovered everyone who was on the call were deepfake characters. The incident has been reported to authorities. (Source: Metro)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Deepfakes are going to have an enormous security impact on businesses, and that impact is already being felt from President Biden to Taylor Swift to banks in Hong Kong. Before any money leaves your bank accounts you need to make sure your internal controls include multiple levels of documented approvals.

3. AWS helps SMBs boost AI and tech competency

Amazon Web Services has begun their competency program to help small and midsized business owners refine their skillset with technological capabilities. Working with 30 "competency partners" the program offers training for business owners based on their area of industry (e.g., automotive, government, manufacturing, and others). (Source: Fox Business)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and security solutions are a few examples of the kinds of specialties that SMBs can receive training for. "It really comes down to the [AWS] customer saying, 'This is what I'm trying to do' and then our teams matching that up with these competency partners and making sure we have a good fit," Ben Schreiner, U.S. head of business innovation for SMB, said. (Ben and I did a few really fun podcasts together recently on cloud and other small business technologies).

4. 18 tools to help automate your business

Olivier Le Moal/Olivier Le Moal - stock.adobe.com

The Chamber of Commerce released a list of automation tools that small-business owners can start taking advantage of so they can focus their time on more rewarding aspects such as customer building and relationships. Some of the tools included are Xero and Zoho Books for billing/cashflow maintenance. Monday.com and Smartsheet are suggested for operations and project management. Both help business owners with scheduling, workflows, task reminders, etc. With the evolving employment of CRM systems, Hubspot and Zoho CRM are among those listed, each for their customized messaging, email automation and customer database maintenance. For the entire list, see story link. (Source: Chamber of Commerce)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: And you thought the chamber was just a lobbyist for businesses? They are, but kudos to the content team for this list. It's very helpful.

5. Mass Gmail rejections to start in April

Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

Starting in April, Gmail will activate its plan to reduce the amount of spam in Gmail accounts. Gmail's email authentication requirement was announced last year. As an update to his initial story, Davey Winder of Forbes has confirmed that Google will begin rejection of a portion of "non-compliant" emails, then "gradually increase" the rejection rate. A Google spokesperson has indicated that enforcement of email authentication will be "gradual and progressive." In terms of the percentages of "non-compliant" traffic — that is yet to be seen, but there are already reports of errors showing up with some bulk-senders. (Source: Forbes)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: How does your Gmail spam folder look? If it's like me, it's full of stuff! And some of those spam messages are blatantly spam, too. Google's going to help us by simply rejecting messages instead of putting them in the spam folder. The benefit is that we'll have fewer emails to sort through to determine if they're truly spam or not. But let's hope that Google rejects the right ones, and not something from a prospective customer!

6. Google plans AI for Workspace users

Ore Huiying/Bloomberg

It appears Google is working toward an artificial intelligence chatbot specifically for Google Workspace members. A productivity and collaboration tool that includes a suite of apps (Calendar, Google Drive, Google Meet, Docs and Sheets), Google Workspace is now featuring "Gemini for Workspace," where users will have access to the AI for work-related projects. Gemini for business will be separate from the Workspace basic plan which is $12 a month. Users will have the option of upgrading to "Gemini Business" or "Gemini Enterprise" — priced at $20 or $30 a month, respectively. Source: Ars Technica)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Whatever Microsoft does, Google does and the same way around. For Google Workspace users, you can get ready for both Gemini and Duet to help you write documents, create emails, spruce up presentations and increase your overall productivity.

7. Salesforce rolls out native gen AI in Slack

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

CRM company Salesforce is launching "native generative AI" in Slack so "customers can easily tap into the collective knowledge shared" in the communications platform. Key updates include channel summaries, thread recaps and AI search. (Source: VentureBeat)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: This is a big step forward for Slack users. With the click of a button, they can find a summary of specific threads without having to spend time searching through multiple conversations. Channels are summarized with items presented in list form. One of the major improvements with this AI tool is the ease of extracting important information from numerous, dated conversations. Slack has said this update alone can "save up to 30 minutes scrolling through messages and another hour of writing the summary." Additionally, if the summary isn't accurate, it can be rated as "bad." The AI will also offer Q&A feature for team members who are seeking more information about items within a summary.

8. Copilot will learn your OneDrive files

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Mark Hachman of PCWorld reported on Microsoft's announcement of Copilot for OneDrive where users can ask the AI assistant to locate files stored on the cloud. Hachman emphasized the significance for two main reasons: One, the large-scale capacity involved in this task. Two, the complex processes required for cloud servers to "learn the content" of a user's files. In simple terms, Copilot can be asked to find and summarize the contents of files without having to open them. Scheduled to launch in May, a detailed breakdown of Copilot service plans is posted on the Microsoft 365 blog. (Source: PCWorld)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: This is yet another enormous step in the capabilities of AI. Privacy issues aside (and they're substantial), Microsoft's Copilot can be a generative AI tool, like ChatGPT, but for a company's internal data stored on OneDrive. You can ask questions and converse on any topic from quotes to service issues, as long as this information is stored there. Of course, Google will soon follow with similar capabilities. This will be a huge help for customer service and sales people who need to access information.

9. Apple sees 'great opportunity' for Vision Pro for businesses

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Since its release last month, the Apple Vision Pro has not only made a strong impression with tech aficionados, but it's also advancing into the business world. Fox News reported that Apple executives expressed their enthusiasm about how Vision Pro will benefit businesses of all kinds. "Leading organizations across many industries such as Walmart, Nike, Vanguard, Stryker, Bloomberg and SAP have started leveraging and investing in Apple Vision Pro," one executive said. The Apple Store is offering demos of the headset which currently retails at $3,499.00 (Source: Fox Business)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Virtual reality headsets are making headways into the commercial world. Real estate agents can give house tours without a customer leaving the office. Restaurants can train employees on making food while they sit in a conference room. Project managers can access files while on a job site. Production staff can see design plans in the air while on the factory floor.

10. Zoom is about to get weirder thanks to Vision Pro

Zoom is enhancing the virtual meeting experience with its new Vision Pro app. In conjunction with Apple Vision Pro this will give users the ability to participate in Zoom meetings using a digital representation (their avatar). (Source: The Verge)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Participants will experience the same expressions and gestures of the user without the headset. The app will also allow users to be immersed into various environments that will blend with their own. Beyond these features, Zoom plans to develop a "real-world pinning" function that gives the user the capability of virtually placing meeting participants into their own environment. The company aims to "make hybrid collaboration more immersive" giving collaborators "the ultimate meeting experience." Whether or not your employees want to be sporting a 20-ounce headset from Mars is another matter.