Xero, the global small business platform, today announced its GenAI-powered smart business companion, Just Ask Xero (JAX), launches in beta this month in addition to an enhanced mobile experience. This powerful combination, unveiled at Xerocon Nashville, can help make it easier than ever for small businesses and their advisors to access business-critical information and manage their finances on the go.

Diya Jolly, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Xero, said, “We’re taking significant steps towards realizing our product vision—to reimagine accounting through AI and mobile. Small business owners are constantly on the move, and by combining GenAI and mobile capabilities, Xero offers them the flexibility to manage finances from anywhere, using the tools they use every day. With JAX providing answers to our customers’ most important questions and enabling easy actions on the go, we’re empowering small businesses to handle their most essential tasks and gain deeper insights no matter where they work.”

Groundbreaking GenAI business companion available soon

In beta this month, JAX, will help small businesses and their advisors to run their business more efficiently. Businesses can ‘Just Ask Xero’ to perform tasks like generating an invoice or modifying quotes directly within Xero, or other commonly used apps and devices like mobile SMS, WhatsApp and email. Additionally, JAX can deliver personalized insights, such as understanding payment history and recommending actions, facilitating better cash flow management and informed decision-making in collaboration with advisors. Watch the JAX demo here.

JAX Assure, the proprietary technology powering JAX, represents a groundbreaking advancement designed to deliver significantly higher accuracy compared to other approaches that rely solely on large language models (LLMs). It employs a control system to filter data fed to the LLMs, ensuring relevance to specific tasks such as creating invoices.

“Small businesses and their advisors often grapple with decision overload, even for routine tasks. GenAI presents a powerful solution for automating back-office operations and enhancing efficiency, with accuracy being paramount. Unlike some LLMs that may lack reliability or generate data points out of context, JAX Assure tackles this crucial challenge by implementing robust safeguards. These measures ensure that our customers can trust JAX’s precision and accuracy when using AI for accounting tasks,” explained Jolly.

Small businesses interested in participating in the JAX beta can register here.

Enhanced mobile experience

With small businesses constantly on the move, Xero has significantly enhanced the Xero Accounting app, enabling users to effortlessly manage their finances from anywhere.

In the coming months, small businesses will have the ability to download, sign up, and start using Xero entirely on mobile, empowering them to operate their business while on the go. The enhanced Xero Accounting app also introduces a range of new and improved features aimed at assisting small businesses in completing tasks wherever they are. These features include:

• Tap to Pay: Available early next year, Xero will launch Tap to Pay, allowing small businesses to take payments on the spot using their mobile device
• Predictive cash flow forecasting: Xero’s powerful short-term cash flow predictions are coming soon in the Xero Accounting app, helping businesses make informed, confident decisions that impact the future of their business
• Create, modify and void invoices on the go: Small businesses on the road can quickly create and amend invoices, and void existing ones
• Mobile bank reconciliation: Reconciling bank transactions will be easier than ever with Xero’s upcoming release of Sort & Search, making it faster to navigate statement lines on mobile. Additionally, bank reconciliation also includes AI-powered predictions that suggest the details of the transition. These predictions are saving mobile users on average 80% less time than manual reconciliations*
• Drill down on P&L statement: Businesses can now understand their profit and loss statement more intimately by drilling down into the transactions behind the numbers and fixing transaction anomalies on the go

Getting started with AI

To help small businesses and their advisors embrace AI and understand how it can positively impact their business, Xero has published tailored AI guides. The guides summarize relevant AI updates, offer practical ways to get started with AI and highlight examples of small businesses and advisors successfully implementing AI in their operations.

*Xero data usage of bank reconciliation time on line items that were manually coded in mobile vs ones where an AI prediction was provided.