NetSuite adds more AI, introduces Anything-as-a-Service ERP
NetSuite's Anything-as-a-Service Edition ERP is aimed at SMBs with hybrid, next-generation business models, a move that could be useful for growing customers.
NEW YORK CITY -- Oracle NetSuite ERP is getting more AI functionality and new capabilities intended to help customers manage services-based business models.
The new AI capabilities are designed to help users perform tasks more efficiently and productively, according to Evan Goldberg, founder and executive vice president at Oracle NetSuite in a briefing here at Thursday's SuiteConnect 2025 event.
The key to effective AI functionality in business applications is to have them fully embedded in a suite, rather than bolted onto the applications, Goldberg said.
The new AI capabilities include the NetSuite CPQ AI Assistant, which enables sellers and buyers to configure product quotes via natural language chat; NetSuite Expert for SuiteAnswers, which provides natural language support guidance; Text Enhance for faster and more accurate data entry in custom text fields; and Prompt Management API for simplifying AI integrations and customizations through the central management of prompts used in large language models in NetSuite.
The vendor also unveiled an Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS) Edition for NetSuite ERP at SuiteConnect. The XaaS Edition is intended for SMBs that are growing and are using hybrid business models, including marketing and selling products and services, as well as other functionality for converging business processes, according to Goldberg.
The XaaS ERP approach is aimed at a new generation of entrepreneurs who don't follow the distinctive business models of previous generations, such as wholesaler, retailer, distributor, manufacturer or internet service provider, he said.
"This blurring of the lines has worked well to NetSuite's advantage," Goldberg said. "We've been doing it all along, but now we're saying there's this new category of company that we have been servicing and now we can package it up from the start to say that we know that this is how your business is evolving, and we've got the right tools for you to do it."
The new AI capabilities and the XaaS Edition are available now in the latest update of NetSuite ERP at no extra charge.
The NetSuite cloud ERP platform comprises a suite of interrelated business applications aimed primarily at small to midsize organizations. The applications include ERP, finance and accounting, CRM, human capital management, field service management, professional services automation and other business applications.
The platform is updated twice a year with new functionality that increasingly includes AI-based features.
Anticipating AI value
SuiteConnect attendee Jessica Thomas, chief accounting officer at Soluna, said she is eager to find out more about how AI can provide value for the company.
Based in Albany, N.Y., Soluna builds and operates data centers in various locations in the U.S. that are colocated with renewable energy sources, including solar and wind farms. Its data centers are used for purposes such as cryptocurrency mining, Thomas said.
The company went live with a NetSuite ERP in January 2024, replacing a legacy ERP system and many Excel-based processes, she said. Soluna is using standard NetSuite functionality for financial processes including procure-to-pay and order-to-cash, and Thomas said she expects that AI will be an integral part of its NetSuite functionality soon.
"We're using AI now, but not to its fullest extent," Thomas said. "We consider ourselves to be a technology company, and the future of our data centers is in AI, versus the digital cryptocurrency side."
Thomas added that she wants to explore what AI functionality NetSuite can provide and how it could benefit Soluna, such as maintaining compliance with the terms of customer contracts.
"How great would it be to load that contract into the ERP system and say, 'I want to summarize all of the compliance features and build the debt schedule, and then calculate the covenant and have a dashboard that shows we're in compliance,'" Thomas said. "I don't want to spend my time doing those things, I want to spend my time figuring out if we're close on this covenant and then do what needs to happen."
Evan Goldberg, founder and executive vice president at Oracle NetSuite, speaks at SuiteConnect 2025.
Anything-as-a-Service useful for growing SMBs
The new AI features are useful for customers, but they don't stand out from what ERP competitors have added to their platforms, according to Brian Sommer, founder and president at TechVentive.
All vendors are struggling with how to differentiate anything that they're doing with AI.
Brian Sommer Founder and President, TechVentive
"Some of what they're doing with AI is identical to what other vendors are doing," Sommer said. "All vendors are struggling with how to differentiate anything that they're doing with AI."
The XaaS Edition could be useful for NetSuite's SMB customers and helps NetSuite stand out among the other cloud ERP vendors, he said. It should be useful because they are targeting it to growing businesses that are offering hybrid product and services sales that need different accounting rules.
"They've put this together in a single, highly integrated system, so there's no argument that there's a certain value in that," Sommer said. "It's almost shame on other companies for not doing something similar."
Jim O'Donnell is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget who covers ERP and other enterprise applications.
