If you weren’t at SuiteWorld 2025, you missed something significant.
Not the usual “here’s a niche feature for 5% of customers” announcement. This year was different.
Most folks at the conference were drinking from an AI fire hose. Oracle dropped more meaningful announcements in three days than we’ve seen in the past five years combined.
And unlike field service management in 2023 or the Redwood experience in 2024, this year’s announcements affect all 45,000 NetSuite customers.
We had team members on the ground in Vegas—talking to customers, sitting in sessions, getting hands-on with demos. Here’s everything you need to know about what’s coming to NetSuite and when you can actually expect it.
The Platform Shift Nobody’s Talking About Correctly
“NetSuite is shifting from a system of record to a system of reasoning.”
That’s not marketing speak. It’s a fundamental change in how you’ll interact with your ERP over the next 18 months.
Here’s what that actually means:
System of Record (what you have now): You enter data. You search for reports. You export to Excel. You build workflows manually. You reconcile at month-end.
System of Reasoning (what’s coming): You ask questions in natural language. The system generates insights dynamically. AI suggests and builds workflows. Autonomous processes handle repetitive tasks.
This is NetSuite Next. And it’s not one feature—it’s a complete platform redesign that touches everything.
NetSuite Next: What’s Actually Changing
NetSuite Next is the umbrella term for this entire transformation. Here’s what’s included:
The Interface Redesign
Dark mode is coming. Yes, really. And customers are genuinely excited about it.
But more importantly, the entire interface is getting the Redwood treatment with better usability, more intuitive navigation, and role-based customization that adapts to how you actually work.
Conversational AI Throughout
AI isn’t bolted on as a separate feature. It’s embedded throughout the platform. Every screen. Every workflow. Every report.
Dynamic Reporting
The system can now generate reports on the fly based on natural language requests. No more report builder. No more saved searches for every possible question.
Timeline Reality Check
Here’s where we need to be honest. Glenn, our COO with 13 years of NetSuite experience, put it perfectly:
“I temper expectations on delivery. It always takes longer.”
The last time NetSuite did a major redesign, delivery timelines stretched. Customizations didn’t migrate cleanly. The devil was in the details.
So when Oracle says “6 to 18 months,” understand that some features will hit in the next release. Others won’t arrive until late 2026.
Ask Oracle: Your New Way of Working
Remember that search bar at the top center of NetSuite? It’s getting replaced with something fundamentally different.
Ask Oracle is a conversational AI assistant embedded throughout NetSuite. It adapts to your role and context automatically.
How It Actually Works
A CFO asks: “What’s driving the variance in gross margin this quarter?”
The system doesn’t just pull up a static report. It generates a real-time gross margin variance analysis. It breaks down fluctuations by SKU, by channel, by region. It highlights outlier transactions contributing to that variance.
All in natural language. All actionable.
A warehouse manager asks: “What’s causing fulfillment delays?”
Different question. Different role. The system surfaces completely different data—order bottlenecks, inventory issues, shipping constraints.
Beyond Search: Taking Action
This is where Ask Oracle gets interesting. You’re not just retrieving information. You can take action directly from the conversation.
Initiate approvals. Update records. Create workflows. All conversationally.
One customer at the conference described it as “finally making NetSuite feel like it’s 2025.”
When It’s Available
Ask Oracle ships as part of NetSuite Next. Expected in the next major release, which typically means within the next few months.
But remember: initial release will have limitations. The AI will get smarter over time as it learns your business.
Agentic Workflows: AI That Learns Your Business
This is where things move from “cool feature” to “fundamental shift in how work gets done.”
Agentic workflows are AI-driven processes that suggest, build, and execute complex tasks. They run continuously in the background, learning and improving over time.
What This Means in Practice
Think about how your team currently works:
Someone identifies a repetitive process. They document it. They request a workflow or customization. A developer builds it. It gets tested. It goes live. Six months later, the process changes and the workflow is outdated.
With agentic workflows, the system observes what you’re doing. It identifies patterns. It suggests automation. You approve it. The workflow deploys. And as your process evolves, the workflow adapts automatically.
No developer required for standard processes. No six-month implementation cycles.
The Reality Check
Glenn’s take: “This is the future of work. But it will be interesting to see how the AI interacts with all the customizations and layered approach that NetSuite has.”
Translation: This is probably a subsequent release or two after NetSuite Next launches. The technology is impressive in demos. Production reality with 45,000 different customer configurations? That’s harder.
We’ll know more before next year’s SuiteWorld.
Autonomous Close: The Talk of the Town
“Zero-day close. That was the talk of the town at SuiteWorld.”
Chris, our Director of Sales who was on the ground at the conference, watched customer after customer have what he called “a holy moment” when they saw the autonomous close demo.
Here’s why.
What Autonomous Close Actually Does
It monitors transactions automatically throughout the month. It detects anomalies before you try to close. It reconciles entries without manual review. It tracks overall progress in a new Close Manager interface.
Oracle’s internal testing showed 98% of transactions handled automatically.
Let that sink in. 98%.
What This Replaces
No more “Did you book that yet?” emails flooding inboxes at month-end.
No more staff meetings where you review checklists of what got done and what didn’t.
No more reconciling spreadsheets to figure out what’s still outstanding.
No more discovering three days after you thought you closed that someone forgot to accrue for an expense.
The Black Line Comparison
Glenn’s perspective: “This is something Black Line has done for quite a while. It’s nice to see it embedded in the system.”
That’s significant. Black Line is the gold standard for close management. NetSuite is now building that functionality natively.
For NetSuite customers, that means no additional software license. No integration to maintain. No syncing issues between systems.
Timeline
Previews are rolling out now to select customers. Global deployments follow in 2026-2027.
That gives you time to prepare. And preparation is critical, which we’ll get to in a moment.
Bill.com Integration: Self-Driving AP
This was one of the few announcements that’s already live in production.
NetSuite and Bill.com announced a deep integration that brings end-to-end AP inside NetSuite.
How It Works
The system reads invoices automatically (AI-powered OCR). It matches them to POs. It proposes payments based on your working capital goals, not just due dates. It executes payments through Bill’s network of 8 million connected vendors. Reconciliation happens automatically within NetSuite.
Think of it as self-driving AP.
The system learns your payment patterns. It understands your cash flow needs. It optimizes payment timing to balance vendor relationships with working capital preservation.
Why This Matters
Chris’s observation from the conference: “We come across Bill.com day-to-day with our prospective customers and customers. It’s exciting to see this partnership.”
NetSuite tried to do this years ago with their HSBC connection. It didn’t gain traction. Bill.com is a proven player with massive vendor adoption.
This integration bridges the gap between finance and operations in a way NetSuite hasn’t achieved before.
Availability
Already live in the US. Talk to your NetSuite rep if you want to enable it.
AI Canvas: PowerBI Meets FP&A Inside NetSuite
For finance teams drowning in Excel, this might be the most exciting announcement.
AI Canvas is a collaborative workspace inside NetSuite for scenario planning and analysis.
What You Can Do
Model changes in supplier costs. Run what-if scenarios on pricing. Build forecasts with multiple assumptions. Collaborate with your team in real-time.
All using live NetSuite data. No exports. No version control nightmares. No “wait, which spreadsheet has the latest numbers?”
Glenn’s reaction: “I’m probably the most excited for this as someone who does a lot of analysis in Excel. Being able to use and harvest your NetSuite data in real time instead of having to dump it to Excel, you forgot something, you miss something… having it all in one central location to do the modeling is going to be really cool.”
Timeline
Available once your instance upgrades to NetSuite Next. Expect this 6-12 months out.
For Developers: SuiteCloud Gets Smarter
If you have a development team or work with NetSuite partners, these updates matter.
TypeScript and SuiteScript 2.1 Support
Modern development languages. Better tooling. Faster development cycles.
AI Developer Assistant
This is NetSuite’s version of GitHub Copilot. Generate code from natural language. Auto-create documentation. Debug faster.
Glenn’s honest take: “I’m not gonna lie. I’ve plugged something into ChatGPT to get a script for NetSuite and it works. Should you do that for everything? Absolutely not. But it goes a long way in speeding up time to value.”
Now that capability is native in the platform with better context about your specific NetSuite environment.
Why This Matters
Faster customizations. Lower development costs. Easier maintenance. Your developers will actually enjoy working in SuiteCloud.
The Reality Check You Need to Hear
Everything above sounds incredible. And it is.
But here’s what most people aren’t talking about.
Timelines Will Slip
“I temper expectations on delivery. It always takes longer.”
Glenn said this for a reason. The last time NetSuite did a major redesign, delivery timelines stretched. Features that were “coming soon” took 18 months.
Plan accordingly.
Your Data Needs to Be Clean NOW
All these AI features are only as good as what you feed them.
Garbage in, garbage out. That hasn’t changed.
If your chart of accounts is a mess, if your classifications are inconsistent, if your processes aren’t documented, these AI features won’t magically fix that.
They’ll just automate your mess faster.
Customizations Will Need Review
NetSuite’s strength is its customization capability. That’s also its complexity during major platform shifts.
All those scripts, workflows, and custom records? They’ll need to be reviewed and potentially updated for NetSuite Next.
AI Governance Is Critical
With the AI Connector allowing you to plug into external LLMs, governance becomes critical.
Don’t let teams connect to ChatGPT or Claude without security policies in place. Your data might be “safe” according to the vendors, but do you really want to risk it?
Build your AI governance framework now. Decide who can connect to what. Establish data security policies. Document acceptable use.
What to Do Right Now
You have 6 to 18 months before most of these features go live. Here’s how to prepare:
1. Clean Your Data
Review your chart of accounts. Fix inconsistent classifications. Document what each field actually means. Standardize naming conventions.
This isn’t glamorous work. But it’s the foundation for everything else.
2. Audit Your Customizations
Do you still need that script from 2018 that “Jim did” and nobody remembers why?
Probably not.
Clean up before the migration. Remove unused customizations. Document what you’re keeping and why.
3. Document Your Processes
When agentic workflows launch, they need to understand your business logic.
If it’s not documented, the AI can’t learn it.
Map your key processes now. Document the logic. Identify what should be automated.
4. Build Your AI Governance Framework
Establish policies before your team starts experimenting with AI features.
Who can access what? What data can be shared with external AI? What approvals are required?
Get ahead of this.
5. Plan Your Testing Strategy
When previews become available, have a plan for testing.
Who will test? What scenarios will you validate? How will you measure success?
Don’t wait until general availability to figure this out.
The Bottom Line
This was a groundbreaking SuiteWorld.
Not because of one killer feature. But because Oracle showed a cohesive vision for how AI transforms ERP from a system of record to a system of reasoning.
For the first time since the San Jose days, we felt like we were drinking from a fire hose of real, meaningful announcements.
That’s exciting.
But it also means there’s real work to do to get ready.
The organizations that prepare now—cleaning data, auditing customizations, building governance frameworks—will unlock value immediately when NetSuite Next arrives.
The ones that don’t will spend months catching up.
Which camp do you want to be in?