NetSuite customers urged to prepare for AI adoption

NetSuite customers in Australia and New Zealand are being urged to prepare their data, controls and processes for broader AI adoption across the ERP platform. Annexa said that shift became clearer after announcements at SuiteWorld in Las Vegas.

It pointed to a growing focus on AI tools embedded in finance and operations workflows, with early attention likely to centre on question-and-answer functions and close management processes.

More than 45 SuiteSkills were introduced during the week, alongside industry-specific SuiteAgents, AI workspaces, agent development and management tools, predictive functions within Ask Oracle, and SuiteExpress, NetSuite's AI-led implementation approach.

NetSuite said more than 15,000 customers, about one in three of its customer base, are using AI across the platform. AI Connector usage has also grown from fewer than 1,000 users at launch in late 2025 to more than 13,000 by October 2026.

For customers in Australia and New Zealand, Ask Oracle is likely to be the first point of entry as NetSuite Next and Ask Oracle roll out, according to Annexa. Its initial attraction is that users can query business data and generate insights without changing existing processes.

Finance focus

Finance teams are expected to pay close attention to the financial close, where NetSuite demonstrated tools for flux analysis, reconciliations, close management, payment approvals and exception handling.

That emphasis reflects a broader push to reduce the manual effort involved in recurring finance work. Many organisations still rely on spreadsheets, offline processes or third-party tools to complete parts of the close.

Annexa said Intelligent Close Manager could see rapid uptake among customers that have built workarounds outside the platform. Those users may be more willing to adopt targeted automation in familiar processes than to hand broader decision-making to AI agents.

Adoption path

Annexa described a staged adoption model in which organisations begin by asking questions, then move to recommendations and guided actions, and only later allow higher levels of automation. It expects that pattern to hold over the next two years, particularly as customers remain cautious about allowing agents to execute transactions independently.

That gradual shift has implications for how people use ERP software. Instead of navigating menus and forms for every task, staff may increasingly supervise systems that coordinate activity, present recommendations and carry out approved actions.

By the end of 2027, Annexa expects a larger share of work now completed manually through screens and forms to be handled by AI agents. In that model, people would spend more time managing exceptions, approving decisions and overseeing automated processes.

Implementation economics

SuiteExpress was another focus because it aims to capture requirements, migrate data and recommend configuration from a customer's own documents and information. If widely adopted, it would change how ERP projects are delivered and reduce the amount of routine implementation work handled manually by consultants.

Annexa argued this would shift the value of implementation partners towards business understanding, process design and industry expertise, rather than hours spent on configuration and coding. It said poor processes would remain poor even if AI made them faster to implement.

The businesses most likely to gain from AI will not necessarily be those with the newest tools, Annexa said. Instead, it identified process documentation, data quality, approvals, governance and operational discipline as the main conditions for successful adoption.

Another issue is product cadence. Annexa said NetSuite is moving towards more frequent releases, meaning implementation is likely to become a continuing process of adjustment rather than a one-off project.

That would place new demands on finance and operations teams. Staff long trained to process transactions and follow software procedures may need to adapt to defining outcomes, instructing agents, checking results and handling exceptions.

Manual intervention in every transaction should no longer be treated as the best form of control, Annexa said, arguing that governance depends more on rules, approvals, audit trails and exception management than on human handling of each step.

"Use the next six months to get your house in order. With AI moving this fast, having your core platforms and data organised and secure means you can move quickly and take advantage of the latest models as they arrive, rather than being locked into one. Most teams in Australia and New Zealand are running lean, so that head start is going to be hard for anyone else to catch," Matthew Owens, Director, Annexa, said.