How might we surface OMNI (Intuit AI) skills inside the moments Payroll customers are already in, instead of making them go looking?
The Why?
10
10
Omni skills launched since December 2025
68.2%
68.2%
of all Payroll AI usage is just one skill, payroll help
Think about the last time you gave up on an app, not because it couldn't do what you needed, but because you couldn't figure out how. The feature was probably right there. You just never found it.
Omni has been live in Payroll since December 2025, but most customers only ever use one of its ten skills. They weren't rejecting Omni. They didn't know it could do these tasks for them. The skills existed. The discovery didn't.
What is OMNI?
But first lets take a couple steps back. What is Multi Label Printing? Multi-label printing (AKA bulk printing) allows users to print multiple shipping labels at once, instead of creating them one by one.
This feature is especially valuable for high-volume printers or small businesses fulfilling several orders daily, as it saves time, reduces repetitive actions, and streamlines the overall shipping workflow.
On desktop, this capability is well-established, but had not yet been translated to the mobile experience, creating friction for users who needed flexibility on the go.
Current State
Payroll Overview is the page customers visit most, and it's packed with instructions: setup tasks, to-do lists, resources. The feedback came down to one line: "It's telling me what to do." Omni could do those tasks for customers, but nothing on the page said so.
Discovery
To start this process I led a Payroll discovery workshop with the engineering, product management, & design teams to map the full lifecycle of a pay period and where customers need help at each stage. Synthesizing it surfaced 5 themes:
Proactivity & readiness
Do it for me
Onboarding moments
Mobile
Wrap-up actions
I focused on one: Right Place, Right Moment, surfacing Omni exactly when and where customers need it, starting with the Payroll Overview page.
If we surface Omni inside the moments customers are already in, rather than waiting for them to seek it out, we can increase skill activation and customer satisfaction by making their jobs to be done easier.
Customer Journey & Mental Model
I mapped how customers move through a pay cycle and what they want at each stage, so every Omni prompt matches the customer's state.
Across the cycle, customers want the same things: a green light or a flag, one prioritized action, and no surprises ahead.
Exploration
I explored concepts from mild to wild on the Payroll Overview page:
A payroll tracker counting down to pay day, with "Fix it for me" actions
A "while you were away" feed of what Omni sent, ran, or completed
Possible attention items like unusual amounts, un-logged hours, and missing info
A calm "you're all set for now" state for when nothing needs doing
Omni woven into the existing to-do list, so "Marcus has missing hours" sits right next to an "Enter hours" action
Same goal, new way to get there.
But as usual with many projects, time and capacity had other plans.
To still validate our learnings for the MVP, I aligned with my PM and engineering, and we found other opportunities to test this with customers faster. From there, we narrowed down to page-specific, contextual entry points. Instead of one big surface on the Overview, Omni shows up on the page where the question actually comes up.
To decide where, I mapped the questions customers ask on every Payroll page: Paycheck List, Employees, Contractors, Payroll Taxes, Filings, Benefits, and Compliance. Each page got its own set of suggested Omni actions, and I starred two to build first: Paycheck List and Compliance.
The Overview vision stayed the north star through this process, and these pages are how we proved it.
Final Result
Paycheck List. Customers can ask Omni to correct a paycheck right from the page, whether that means editing, voiding, or deleting. Omni pulls the paycheck history and shows the tax impact before anything changes.
Compliance. A "Looking for something?" prompt opens Omni with the right follow-up question, so customers get the correct rule for their state and situation instead of digging through articles.
320
320
customers invoked Omni from a page entry point within hours of launch
Then we shipped them. With the help the engineering team, we set up entry points on both the Compliance and Paycheck List pages. In the first 5 to 6 hours after launch, 320 customers had already clicked in and invoked Omni.
That's a strong early signal for the hypothesis. Customers didn't need to be taught where Omni lived. We just had to be there when they had the question.
What's Next
Measure activation Both pages are live, so we can now track whether in-context surfacing drives customers to discover and keep using Omni skills.
Scale the pattern The same approach extends to the other pages I mapped: Employees, Contractors, Payroll Taxes, Filings, and Benefits.
Needs Attention" implementation
I spotted a recurring "Needs Attention" pattern across features and pitched a shared widget to the designer leading the Overview overhaul.
Presentation!
At the end of my time at Intuit I also got the amazing opportunity to present at the end of year showcase which was such a blast!
