Tech Talks Daily
00:12:09 · Neil C. Hughes, Brian Chess
[00:12:09] S0: And I think many businesses are also slightly concerned around accountability. So when several agents contribute to a workflow, how can they trace what happened and understand why a decision was made and it's not just a black box that no one really knows what happens in there? [00:12:23] S1: NetSuite has always been good about accountability for humans. So it was a relatively small step for us to say, now we'd need to be able to track the agent that made this decision too. So now you've got on a transaction which agent touched this and when as well as the activity log for the agent. [00:12:45] S0: And how should a company decide whether to build its own AI capability or use an embedded... One that is embedded within its own business platform? Any tips or advice there on on how they should make that decision? [00:12:59] S1: Oh. Oh. This is a tough one. Almost [00:13:04] S0: a podcast episode on its own, really. [00:13:06] S1: Are you... Do you wanna make the way you use the AI part of your business advantage? Yeah. Or would you like to take advantage of what you can easily just turn on in NetSuite? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there's no one answer to that. It depends on, what business are you in, how much in house expertise do you have, how much time do you want to invest here. Yeah. Yeah. It's a it's a worthwhile question to be asking,
00:13:06 · Brian Chess, Neil C. Hughes
[00:13:06] S1: Are you... Do you wanna make the way you use the AI part of your business advantage? Yeah. Or would you like to take advantage of what you can easily just turn on in NetSuite? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there's no one answer to that. It depends on, what business are you in, how much in house expertise do you have, how much time do you want to invest here. Yeah. Yeah. It's a it's a worthwhile question to be asking, [00:13:40] S0: but there's no one answer to it. Your agents aren't producing accurate answers because they don't have a complete semantic understanding of your data, and Denodo is solving this and solving it through semantic consistency. Through semantic consistency, your agents can start making accurate predictions in real time. So see what else Denodo can do by visiting denodo.com to learn more. There's been a mantra in business in IT as long as we can both remember, and that is you can only improve what you measure. So which measurement show that an AI feature is saving time, improving accuracy rather than just increasing software activity, and everyone's looking busy? What should they be measuring, and how can they tell that We're we're getting the ROI, and we're seeing a real difference here.
00:14:29 · Brian Chess, Neil C. Hughes
[00:14:29] S1: We have customers who... Well, first of all, one of the amazing things about AI is the range of problems that you can solve with. So we have customers who come and tell us these just incredible stories about what they've accomplished. Sometimes, we we already talked about payroll ran on time. Yeah. That that is a win. We have other customers though who say, I gave the AI every one of my vendor contracts as well as the record, in NetSuite of what those vendors have been billing us for, and I found all of the places where we could optimize. And then they can add up how much money they save that way, and they come up with some incredible figures. But those don't necessarily transfer. If you go to the company next door, they aren't running the same supply chain, so they don't have those same relationships. So I haven't seen yet a lot of transferable where I say, if you adopt this, you're gonna save this many dollars. And it isn't working like that. It's much more individualized than that. [00:15:33] S0: And what should attendees watch for this year's sweet world sweet world's announcements if they want to understand NetSuite's direction on AI and what comes after this? I know we're... We are focusing on now, but any teasers you could give me on the kind of direction that you're heading on here?
00:15:33 · Neil C. Hughes, Brian Chess
[00:15:33] S0: And what should attendees watch for this year's sweet world sweet world's announcements if they want to understand NetSuite's direction on AI and what comes after this? I know we're... We are focusing on now, but any teasers you could give me on the kind of direction that you're heading on here? [00:15:49] S1: Oh, we have announced so much stuff. You started though with the with the number one word for where people should be looking, and that is agents. Yeah. So there's a conversational interface. Ask Oracle. We talk about it like it's ChatGPT or or something akin to that, a chat interface. But it really is the very first agent that they're talking talking to. And when they find out that all they have to do to turn that conversation into an agent is say, hey, make this an agent for me. That's a really powerful moment. That's what I think businesses should be looking for. [00:16:26] S0: And you've got access to what people are asking. You've got so many different conversations. I'm curious, when people talk to their ERP system, what kind of questions are they asking? Anything you can
00:16:26 · Neil C. Hughes, Brian Chess
[00:16:26] S0: And you've got access to what people are asking. You've got so many different conversations. I'm curious, when people talk to their ERP system, what kind of questions are they asking? Anything you can [00:16:36] S1: share there? Well, there's there's we don't go just reading conversations. For one thing, there's way too many of them. And and it's also... Could be invasive if we did it wrong, but we do analyze their conversations. And what we see is their early their early questions are about numbers that come straight out of reports in the system. They're asking the kinds of questions where they know the answer because they're trying to figure out, does this thing know what it's talking about? Is this actually hooked up to my business? Like, what is this thing? Yeah. And so they do things there, and then they start to ask for analysis. So it's things where they can figure out the answer, but it might be a little more time consuming than just looking it up. Then they graduate to, could you do a little bit of work for me so I don't have to do it? And then that last phase with the agents is about automation. How do you turn that into something where the the system is working for you twenty four seven? And although this is a huge conference here, I want [00:17:39] S0: to talk for a moment, I'd like to just take a break for talking about the large enterprises and talk about those small to medium sized enterprises. How is AI helping these businesses operate much like larger ones and give them that competitive advantage?
00:17:39 · Neil C. Hughes, Brian Chess
[00:17:39] S0: to talk for a moment, I'd like to just take a break for talking about the large enterprises and talk about those small to medium sized enterprises. How is AI helping these businesses operate much like larger ones and give them that competitive advantage? [00:17:53] S1: So NetSuite was the first SaaS company. And when we got started with SaaS, we were telling people about how, hey, you're not gonna need an IT person who knows which server to buy and how to do a remote backup because we're just gonna take care of all that stuff for you. Yeah. So when I look at the... Every business has something to gain from AI. But when I look at where does the advantage land, there's more advantage to these smaller businesses because they have fewer specialists. So now that AI can step in and act as doing some of the stuff that you maybe would have had to either have a specialist on staff for or bring in an outside consultant to do, now the AI can help you with. And so, the advantage goes to the smaller businesses in what's happening with AI. And finally, when you leave here, we talk about everything that's out there now. We're not talking about next, and you probably have so many different conversations with so many different people. What are you going to [00:18:54] S0: be taking away from this event? What are you going to be thinking about on that plane ride home?