Inside NetSuite’s next act: Evan Goldberg on the future of AI-powered business systems

Presented by Oracle NetSuiteWhen Evan Goldberg started NetSuite in 1998, his vision was radically simple: give entrepreneurs access to their business data anytime, anywhere. At the time, most enterprise software lived on local servers. As an entrepreneur himself, Goldberg understood the frustration intimately. “I had fragmented systems. They all said something different,” he recalls of his early days. NetSuite was the first company to deliver enterprise applications entirely through web browsers, combining CRM, ERP, and ecommerce into one unified platform. That breakthrough idea pioneered the cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) era and propelled supersonic growth, a 2007 IPO, and an acquisition by Oracle in 2016. Still innovating at the leading-edge That founding obsession — turning scattered data into accessible, coherent, actionable intelligence — is driving NetSuite as it reshapes the next generation of enterprise software.At SuiteWorld 2025 last month, the Austin-based firm unveiled NetSuite Next. Goldberg calls it “the biggest product evolution in the company’s history.” The reason? While NetSuite has embedded AI capabilities into workflows for years, he explains, Next represents a quantum leap — contextual, conversational, agentic, composable AI becoming an extension of operations, not separate tools.AI woven into everyday business operations Most enterprise AI today gets bolted on through APIs and conversational interfaces. NetSuite Next operates differently. Intelligence runs deep in workflows instead of sitting on the surface. It autonomously reconciles accounts, optimizes payment timing, predicts cash crunches, and surfaces its reasoning at every step. It doesn’t just advise on business processes — it executes them, transparently, within human-defined guardrails.”We built NetSuite for entrepreneurs so that they could get great 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 really good data scientist.”This architectural divergence reflects competing philosophies about enterprise technology adoption. Microsoft and SAP have pursued rapid deployment through add-on assistants. NetSuite’s five-year development cycle for Next represents a more fundamental reimagining: making AI an everyday tool woven into business operations, not a separate application requiring constant context-switching.AI echoes and deepens cloud innovation Goldberg sees a clear through line connecting today’s AI adoption and the cloud computing era he pioneered. “There’s sort of an infinite sense of possibility that exists in the technology world,” he says. “Everybody is thinking about how they can leverage this, how they’re going to get involved.”When NetSuite was starting, he continues, “We had to come to customers with the cloud and say, ‘This won’t disrupt your operations. It’s going to make them better.'” Today, evangelizing enterprise leaders on advanced AI requires a similar approach — demonstrating immediate value while minimizing implementation risk. For NetSuite, continuous innovation around maximizing customer data for growth is an undeniable theme that connects both eras.New transformative capabilities NetSuite’s latest AI capabilities span business operations, while blurring (in a good way) the lines between human and machine intervention:Context-aware intelligence. Ask Oracle adapts responses based on user role, current workflow, and business context. A CFO requesting point-of-sale data receives financial analytics. A warehouse manager asking 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 department head approval, then CFO sign-off” — which the system translates into executable workflows with appropriate controls and audit trails.Governed autonomous operations. Autonomous workflows operate within defined parameters, reconciling accounts, generating payment runs, predicting cash flow. When the system recommends accelerating payment to a supplier, it shows which factors influenced the decision — transparent logic users can accept, modify, or override.Open AI architecture. Built to support Model Context Protocol, NetSuite AI Connector Service enables enterprises to integrate external large language models while supporting governance.Critically, NetSuite adds AI capabilities at no additional cost — embedded directly into workflows employees already use daily.Security and privacy from Oracle infrastructure Built-in AI requires robust infrastructure that bolt-on approaches sidestep. Here, according to NetSuite, tight integration within Oracle technology provides operational and competitive advantages, especially security and compliance peace of mind. Engineers say that’s because NetSuite is supported by Oracle’s complete 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,” Goldberg reflects. “That’s one of the most differentiated aspects of NetSuite. When you’re doing your financial close, and you’re thinking about what reserves you’re going to take, you can look at your sales data, because that’s also there in NetSuite. With NetSuite Next, AI can also help you make those kinds of decisions.”And performance improves with use. As the platform learns from millions of transactions across thousands of customers, its embedded intelligence improves in ways that bolt-on assistants operating adjacent to core systems cannot match.NetSuite’s customer base demonstrates this scalability advantage — from startups that became global enterprises including Reddit, Shopify, and DoorDash; as well as promising newcomers like BERO, a brewer of non-alcoholic beer founded by actor Tom Holland, Chomps meat snacks, PetLab, and Kieser Australia. The unified platform grows with businesses rather than requiring migration as they scale.Keeping fire in the belly after three decadesHow does a nearly 30-year-old company maintain innovative capacity, particularly as part of a mammoth corporate ecosystem? Goldberg credits the parent company’s culture of continuous reinvention.”I don’t know if you’ve heard about this guy Larry Ellison,” he smiles. “He manages to seemingly reinvent himself whenever one of these technology revolutions comes along. That hunger, that curiosity, that desire to make things constantly better imbues all of Oracle.”For Goldberg, the single biggest challenge facing NetSuite customers centers on integration complexity and trust. NetSuite Next addresses this by embedding AI within existing workflows rather than requiring separate systems.In addition, updates to SuiteCloud Platform — an extensibility and customization environment — help organizations adapt NetSuite to their unique business needs. Built on open standards, it lets enterprises mix and match AI models for different functions. SuiteAgent frameworks enable partners to build specialized automation directly into NetSuite. AI Studios give administrators control over how AI operates within specific industry needs.”This takes NetSuite’s flexibility to a new level,” Goldberg says, enabling customers and partners to “quickly and easily build AI agents, connect external AI assistants, and orchestrate AI processes.”“AI execution fabric” delivers measurable business impact Industry analysts increasingly argue that embedded AI features deliver superior results compared to add-on models. Futurum Group sees NetSuite Next as an “AI execution fabric” rather than a conversational layer — intelligence that runs deep in workflows instead of sitting on the surface.For midmarket enterprises navigating talent shortages, complex compliance frameworks, and competition from digital-native companies, the distinction between advice and execution matters economically.Built-in AI doesn’t just inform better decisions. It makes those decisions, transparently and autonomously, within human-defined guardrails. For enterprises making ERP decisions today, the choice carries long-term implications. Bolt-on AI can deliver immediate value for information access and basic automation. But built-in AI promises to transform operations with intelligence permeating every transaction and workflow.NetSuite Next begins rolling out to North American customers next year.Why 2026 will belong to the AI-first businessThe bet underlying NetSuite Next: Enterprises reimagining ERP operations around embedded intelligence will outperform those just adding bolt-on conversational assistance to existing systems. Early cloud computing adopters, Goldberg notes, gained competitive advantages that compounded over time. The same logic appears likely to apply to AI-first platforms. Simplicity and ease of use are two big advantages. “You don’t have to dig through lots of menus and understand all of the analytics capabilities,” Goldberg says. “It will quickly bring up an analysis for you, and then you can converse in natural language to hone in on what you think is most important.”The tools now think alongside users and take intelligently informed action. For midmarket and entrepreneurial companies, where the gap between having information and acting on it can be the difference between growth and failure, that kind of autonomous execution may determine which enterprises thrive in an AI-first era.Sponsored articles are content produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they’re always clearly marked. For more information, contact sales@venturebeat.com.