Inside NetSuite’s next act: Evan Goldberg on the future of AI-powered business systems
Presented by Oracle NetSuite
When Evan Goldberg started NetSuite in 1998, his vision was radically simple: give entrepreneurs access to their business data anytime, anywhere. At the time, most business software was on local servers.
As an entrepreneur himself, Goldberg understood the frustration very well. “I had fragmented systems. They all said something different,” he remembers of his early days.
NetSuite was the first company to deliver business applications entirely through web browsers, combining CRM, ERP and e-commerce into one unified platform. That groundbreaking idea pioneered the era of cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) and fueled supersonic growth, an IPO in 2007 and an acquisition by Oracle in 2016.
Still innovating on the cutting edge
That fundamental obsession – turning scattered data into accessible, coherent, actionable intelligence – is driving NetSuite as it reshapes the next generation of enterprise software.
Bee SuiteWorld 2025 last month, the Austin-based company unveiled NetSuite Next. Goldberg calls it “the largest product evolution in the company’s history.” The reason? While NetSuite has been embedding AI capabilities into workflows for years, Next explains, Next represents a quantum leap forward: contextual, conversational, agentic, composable AI becomes an extension of operations, not separate tools.
AI interwoven into daily business operations
Most business AI today is supported through APIs and conversational interfaces.
NetSuite Next works differently. Intelligence resides deep within workflows rather than on the surface. It autonomously reconciles accounts, optimizes the timing of payments, predicts cash crises and brings out the reasoning at every step. It not only provides advice on business processes; it carries these out transparently, within human-defined guardrails.
“We built NetSuite for entrepreneurs so they could get good information about their business,” Goldberg explains. “I think the next step is to be able to get deeper insights and analysis without being an expert in analytics. AI turns out to be a very good data scientist.”
This architectural divergence reflects competing philosophies about enterprise technology adoption. Microsoft and SAP have aimed for rapid implementation via add-on assistants. NetSuite’s five-year development cycle for Next represents a more fundamental rethink: making AI an everyday tool intertwined with business operations, rather than a separate application that must constantly switch contexts.
AI echoes and deepens cloud innovation
Goldberg sees a clear line connecting today’s AI adoption to the cloud computing era he pioneered. “There’s a kind of infinite sense of possibility in the technology world,” he says. “Everyone is thinking about how they can leverage this, how they can get involved.”
When NetSuite started, he continues, “We had to come to customers with the cloud and say, ‘This won’t disrupt your operations. It will make them better.'” Today, evangelizing business leaders about advanced AI requires a similar approach: demonstrating immediate value and minimizing implementation risk.
For NetSuite, continued innovation around maximizing customer data for growth is an unmistakable theme that connects both eras.
New transformative possibilities
NetSuite’s latest AI capabilities span business operations while blurring the lines between human and machine intervention (in a good way):
Context-aware intelligence. Ask Oracle customizes responses based on user role, current workflow, and business context. A CFO who requests point-of-sale data receives financial analyses. A warehouse manager who asks the same question sees inventory insights.
Collaborative workflow design. AI Canvas functions as a scenario planning workspace where business users articulate processes in natural language. A finance director can describe approval hierarchies for capital expenditures:“For amounts over $50,000, I need approval from the department head and then approval from the CFO” – which translates the system into executable workflows with appropriate controls and audit trails.
Controlled autonomous operations. Autonomous workflows work within defined parameters, reconciling accounts, generating payment runs and forecasting cash flow. When the system recommends accelerating payment to a supplier, it shows which factors influenced the decision: transparent logic that users can accept, change or override.
Open AI architecture. Built to support the Model Context Protocol, NetSuite AI Connector Service enables enterprises to integrate external large language models while supporting management.
Crucially, NetSuite adds AI capabilities at no additional cost, embedded directly into workflows that employees already use every day.
Oracle infrastructure security and privacy
Embedded AI requires a robust infrastructure that bypasses a one-size-fits-all approach. According to NetSuite, tight integration within Oracle technology provides operational and competitive advantages here, especially security and peace of mind in terms of compliance.
Engineers say this is because NetSuite is supported by Oracle’s full stack. From database to applications to analytics, the system optimizes decisions using data from multiple sources in real time.
“That’s why I started NetSuite. I couldn’t get the data I wanted,” says Goldberg. “That’s one of the most differentiating aspects of NetSuite. When you’re doing your financial close and thinking about what reserves you’re going to make, you can look at your sales data because that’s also in NetSuite. With NetSuite Next, AI can help you make those kinds of decisions as well.”
And performance improves with use. As the platform learns from millions of transactions from thousands of customers, the embedded intelligence improves in a way that cannot be matched by additional assistants operating alongside core systems.
NetSuite’s customer base demonstrates this scalability advantage – from startups-turned-global-enterprises, including Reddit, Shopify and DoorDash; but also promising newcomers such as BERO, a brewer of non-alcoholic beer founded by actor Tom Holland, Chomps meat snacks, PetLab and Kieser Australia. The unified platform grows with companies rather than requiring migration as they scale.
Keeping the fire in the belly after three decades
How does a nearly thirty-year-old company maintain its ability to innovate, especially as part of a gigantic business ecosystem? Goldberg praises the parent company’s culture of constant reinvention.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard of this guy, Larry Ellison,” he smiles. “He manages to seemingly reinvent himself whenever one of these technological revolutions occurs. That hunger, that curiosity, that desire to continually make things better permeates all of Oracle.”
For Goldberg, the biggest challenge for NetSuite customers revolves around the complexity and trust of the integration. NetSuite Next addresses this by integrating AI into existing workflows rather than requiring separate systems.
Additionally, updates to SuiteCloud Platform – an extensibility and customization environment – help organizations tailor NetSuite to their unique business needs. It is based on open standards and allows companies to combine AI models for different functions. SuiteAgent frameworks allow partners to build specialized automation directly into NetSuite. AI Studios gives administrators control over how AI works within specific industry needs.
“This takes the flexibility of NetSuite to a new level,” says Goldberg, allowing customers and partners “to quickly and easily build AI agents, connect remote AI assistants, and orchestrate AI processes.”
“AI execution fabric” delivers measurable business impact
Industry analysts are increasingly claiming that embedded AI features deliver superior results compared to add-on models. Futurum Group sees NetSuite Next as a ‘AI execution fabric” instead of a conversational layer: intelligence that sits deep in workflows instead of sitting on the surface.
For mid-market companies facing talent shortages, complex compliance frameworks and competition from digital-native companies, the distinction between advice and execution is economically important.
Built-in AI not only ensures better decisions. It makes these decisions transparently and autonomously, within human-defined guardrails.
For companies making ERP decisions today, this choice has long-term consequences. Bolt-on AI can provide immediate value for information access and basic automation. But built-in AI promises to transform business, with intelligence seeping into every transaction and workflow.
NetSuite Next will begin rolling out to North American customers next year.
Why 2026 will be among the AI-first business
The bet underlying NetSuite Next: Enterprises that reimagine ERP operations around embedded intelligence will outperform those that merely add additional call support to existing systems.
Goldberg notes that early adopters of cloud computing gained competitive advantages that only increased over time. The same logic seems likely to apply to AI-first platforms.
Simplicity and ease of use are two major advantages. “You don’t have to go through a lot of menus and understand all the analytics options,” says Goldberg. “It will quickly provide you with an analysis, and then you can talk in natural language to hone in on what you think is most important.”
The tools now think along with users and take action intelligently. For medium and entrepreneurial companies, where the gap between to have information and act on it could be the difference between growth and failure, that kind of autonomous execution could determine which companies thrive in an AI-first era.
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