Tech Talks Daily
00:02:45 · Neil C. Hughes, Evan Goldberg
[00:02:45] S0: And you said on stage that this is the end of ERP as we know it, and to think of AI as the new you are... Well, as the UI. So... And especially when AR fits your business this way as well. So do you think we're heading towards a future where employees use ERP every day without even realizing they're interacting with an ERP? [00:03:03] S1: Absolutely. I mean, it's... You know, the ERP used to be something you had to navigate, you had to learn, you had to go in your system, lots of different places to find things, and you spent a lot of time doing that, and, you know, that's not everybody's idea of a good time. The next generation of ERP, why it really is the end of ERP as we know it, is because it comes to you. You speak to it in natural language, you get what you want. We, introduced a new capability here for people to put key metrics on their dashboard just by describing what they want on their dashboard. That's the way software should work, and we've wanted that for ages. And now, the incredible advances of AI, we can deliver that kind of very natural, you know, experience to any business user that's using NetSuite. [00:03:55] S0: And obviously, there's been a lot of announcements this week, a lot of press releases. So which SuiteWorld announcement best shows where NetSuite is heading? What customer problems are you addressing with them? Well,
00:03:55 · Neil C. Hughes, Evan Goldberg
[00:03:55] S0: And obviously, there's been a lot of announcements this week, a lot of press releases. So which SuiteWorld announcement best shows where NetSuite is heading? What customer problems are you addressing with them? Well, [00:04:08] S1: I think one of the things that's really exciting that we announced, like, I mentioned AI portlets. It's the easiest feature in the world to use in NetSuite. Just, you know, put it on your dashboard, ask a question, that's very cool. But how does it answer that question accurately? That's what people are certainly very concerned about with AI. AI is always very confident in its answers. But how can you be confident in its answers? And so, SuiteSkills is something that we've developed to sort of collate all the knowledge about how NetSuite works, how businesses work in NetSuite, that when you... However you're accessing AI to use your NetSuite information, whether you're doing it inside of NetSuite, NetSuite Next, which is our next generation of our technology, or you're doing it in something like ChatGPT or Claude, and using our AI connector service, that the AI has the skills necessary to give you accurate, consistent answers. [00:05:07] S0: And everybody uses different models for different reasons. Is being model agnostic is very important to you as well.
00:05:07 · Neil C. Hughes, Evan Goldberg
[00:05:07] S0: And everybody uses different models for different reasons. Is being model agnostic is very important to you as well. [00:05:14] S1: Absolutely. You know, people are gonna choose not just which model they wanna use, but how they wanna use it. Do they wanna use it in sort of full reasoning mode? Do they wanna have it give relatively quick answers? You know, we are working to make sure that no matter what model they're using, however they're using it, you're gonna get consistent information back from NetSuite, and, you know, that's how people are gonna be able to trust these systems, and and give them permission to do more and more on their behalf. Because ultimately, what we're trying to do is make it so the system does so much for you behind the scenes. You don't, you mentioned not even knowing you're using an ERP system. Well, you won't be using it directly. It'll be working on your behalf twenty four hours a day, you know, based on what you've asked it to do for you. Different job functions or different things, but that's what everybody wants, is to get some of those rote things that they spend a lot of time on that they don't think they should be spending time on off their plate, so they can work on that arm's length of of things that they know are important and they've never been able to get to before.
00:05:14 · Evan Goldberg, Neil C. Hughes
[00:05:14] S1: Absolutely. You know, people are gonna choose not just which model they wanna use, but how they wanna use it. Do they wanna use it in sort of full reasoning mode? Do they wanna have it give relatively quick answers? You know, we are working to make sure that no matter what model they're using, however they're using it, you're gonna get consistent information back from NetSuite, and, you know, that's how people are gonna be able to trust these systems, and and give them permission to do more and more on their behalf. Because ultimately, what we're trying to do is make it so the system does so much for you behind the scenes. You don't, you mentioned not even knowing you're using an ERP system. Well, you won't be using it directly. It'll be working on your behalf twenty four hours a day, you know, based on what you've asked it to do for you. Different job functions or different things, but that's what everybody wants, is to get some of those rote things that they spend a lot of time on that they don't think they should be spending time on off their plate, so they can work on that arm's length of of things that they know are important and they've never been able to get to before. [00:06:20] S0: And I'm curious, just to bring this to life for business leaders that are watching and listening here, how are you seeing AI changing the role of ERP from a system of record into a system that can recommend or complete work? Any examples you can share?
00:06:20 · Neil C. Hughes, Evan Goldberg
[00:06:20] S0: And I'm curious, just to bring this to life for business leaders that are watching and listening here, how are you seeing AI changing the role of ERP from a system of record into a system that can recommend or complete work? Any examples you can share? [00:06:32] S1: Yeah. Well, I I mean, we have some great companies that are already saving tens of thousands of dollars or or more, you know, hundreds or thousands of hours, you know, on a monthly or annual basis. I mean, significant sums of money. Time is all... Is more... Even more valuable than money, getting all that time savings. And they're doing it, you know, it's very... Different things. Order approvals, letting the system, you know, just highlight the things that really need your attention, as opposed to you having to sift through it yourself. That's a very simple thing that can happen, and that our customers are are showing that they're doing it doing it now and saving a lot of time. [00:07:14] S0: And smaller companies, I'd love to bring them into the spotlight here. They often have limited data, fewer specialist teams, but there's also a big opportunity for them here. So how can they benefit from AI without adding complexity that they just can't cannot manage?
00:07:27 · Evan Goldberg
[00:07:27] S1: I mean, in terms of sort of leveling the playing field, I think, you know, everybody's using the same models, whether you're a huge company or a tiny company. So that alone is a leveler. Yeah. And we're delivering the same technology to our customers no matter what what their size is. And we even have, announced, a couple weeks ago, a version of NetSuite called Quickstart, which is free to use to start with if you're a tech startup, you know, that's just getting started. You've got your great idea, you've got your coding agents building it, you start selling it, and you're like, oh, I need to actually have financial software now so that I know how much I'm making, and I can, you know, comply with the laws, and and that kind of thing. That's something as an entrepreneur, you don't wanna have to spend a lot of time on because you wanna be building your company. So right from the very beginning, a tiny tech startup can have the technology that ultimately will carry them through IPO and beyond. So that's, I think, another great sort of leveler for for companies. And another big topic, of course, is accountability. So where should customers retain human approval when AI begins acting across everywhere, from finance, inventory, customer operations? Yeah. That's a, you know, that's a great question, and it's a really important question. And it's gonna differ. The answer's gonna differ for different companies, different situations within your company. And, really, what you need to do is get started, and start automating with AI, maybe some of the easier, simpler, more obvious things. And, you know, the human... We definitely keep the human in the loop at NetSuite, but we also give you the flexibility to say, actually, for this set of processes, or these parts of this process, I'm actually now comfortable with you doing it behind the scenes for me, and just alerting me when something is out of the ordinary. So it's gonna be a journey for people to give more trust into the system, and and that's something that we recognize, and we're gonna support with our... With with how we release this technology.