I’ve been to fifteen SuiteWorlds. You start to think you’ve seen it all - the stage lighting, the polished product demos, the polite applause when someone mentions automation or analytics. But this year in Las Vegas, something shifted.
During the keynote, the presenter asked NetSuite to build a workflow in plain English: “Every vendor bill over $10,000 should be routed to finance for approval.”
Seconds later, the AI generated the workflow, deployed it, and even explained what it did.
The room actually went quiet. You could feel people doing the math in their heads. What would that mean for a consultant’s week of work? For the CFO waiting on approvals? For the entire model we’ve been operating under for two decades?
That moment confirmed what’s been creeping up for a while - ERP is no longer about recording the business. It’s starting to run it.
A Different Kind of SuiteWorld
Most people outside this industry think SuiteWorld is a software conference. For those of us who live and breathe it, it’s more like a weather report for what’s next.
Every year there’s a theme: performance, analytics, industry depth. But this one, “Where Your Business Meets AI,” wasn’t a slogan. It was a structural change.
NetSuite’s MCP Connector now lets users plug in large language models like ChatGPT or Claude to perform actions directly inside the system. That’s not just a new button, it’s a rewrite of what “using NetSuite” even means.
One client I spoke to a few years ago was already experimenting with AI agents for internal processes. They now have three models running the same tasks - if all three agree, the transaction posts automatically. If one disagrees, it goes to a human for review. That’s not science fiction; it’s running live at a marketplace many of you use every day.
And as I watched NetSuite showcase its next generation of automation, it was obvious that the platform’s center of gravity has shifted. We used to talk about closing the books faster. Now, we’re talking about systems that never sleep.
The Realization
At Techfino, our clients depend on us to stay ahead of the curve - to make the complex simple. Yet seeing what’s possible now, I understood that the next evolution of ERP isn’t going to be about adding more dashboards or prettier charts. It’s going to be about orchestration.
Our job as partners is changing. We’re not just implementing NetSuite anymore; we’re helping clients turn it into an intelligent operator.
That shift demands a different skillset: less scripting, more systems thinking; less “here’s the report,” more “here’s what the data did for you while you slept.”
One of my clients used to joke that NetSuite was the company’s “memory.” After SuiteWorld, I think it’s becoming the brain.
The New Audience on the Floor
Something else caught my attention this year. Between sessions, I noticed a different crowd walking the floors - private equity value-creation teams.
They weren’t there to collect swag. They were there to map their playbooks.
Every firm that buys and integrates multiple portfolio companies is now looking for ways to standardize on NetSuite - and to do it faster. These aren’t one-off buyers. They’re rolling out ERP across ten, twenty, sometimes fifty companies at a time.
You could see the gears turning: AI-assisted configuration, prebuilt workflows, automated data mapping. If you’re a value-creation leader, that’s gold. If you’re a NetSuite partner, it’s a signal.
The PE world moves fast, and SuiteWorld showed they’re already investing in AI-driven ERP as infrastructure, not just software.
That’s where the next growth wave will come from.
What This Means for Partners
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about shiny tools. It’s about survival.
Partners who stay focused on record-keeping will fall behind the ones who teach systems to act.
When NetSuite Next rolls out its full AI-native features in the next 12 to 18 months, companies that already have clean data and well-defined use cases will hit the ground running. The rest will spend that same year trying to catch up.
The right question now isn’t “Should we use AI in our ERP?” It’s “What do we trust it to do?”
And that means building the foundations now: data governance, workflow accuracy, and human oversight. Because automation without trust is just a faster way to make a mistake.
At Techfino, that’s where our focus is turning - helping clients identify the processes that are ready for AI today, while preparing the rest for what’s coming natively in NetSuite.
“ERP isn’t just remembering anymore, it’s thinking.”
Inside the Transformation
SuiteWorld’s showcase of NetSuite Next was both thrilling and sobering. For example:
“If they can pull this off in the next 12 to 18 months, it’s going to be a game changer.”
That wasn’t just me talking about the keynote, it was a reaction from a dozen people around me who lead consulting teams, CFOs, and even investors.
For the first time, you could see the distance closing between what AI can theoretically do and what’s now embedded in the suite.
A workflow that used to require ten meetings, a consultant, and three sign-offs? Soon it could be generated, tested, and deployed in minutes.
That doesn’t eliminate the need for human expertise, it changes its shape. Consultants will shift from “builders” to “validators.” CSMs will shift from “maintainers” to “strategists.”
That’s a good thing. It puts us closer to the value our clients actually want - speed, clarity, and impact.
From Projects to Playbooks
SuiteWorld taught me that clients aren’t buying projects anymore, they’re buying playbooks.
When I talked to a client from a major tech marketplace, he explained how their AI systems now handle transaction reconciliation autonomously. That’s not a one-off implementation; that’s an operating model.
We can do the same inside NetSuite.
Instead of treating every customization as bespoke, we can start identifying repeatable patterns: workflows for month-end close, invoice approvals, forecasting models. Those patterns become products. Those products become scale.
The shift from service provider to systems orchestrator starts right there.
It’s not about doing more work, it’s about doing smarter work that compounds.
“The partners who build responsibly now will own the next 18 months.”
The AI Readiness Checklist
AI isn’t plug-and-play, no matter what the keynote slides say. If your data is wrong, your automations will be wrong faster.
Here’s what I tell clients when they ask, “What should we do first?”
- Clean your data. Identify your true system of record. Know what’s current, what’s duplicated, what’s stale.
- Clarify your use cases. Start with one process that’s painful and measurable - month-end close, invoice routing, budget forecasting.
- Pilot safely. Use the MCP Connector to test small AI automations in a sandbox, and not with real data (clients, transactions). Build confidence before you scale.
- Set up guardrails. Governance isn’t bureaucracy, it’s the difference between “intelligent” and “dangerous.”
- Educate your team. Tools are only as powerful as the people who trust them.
SuiteWorld didn’t say “AI will do your job.” It said, “AI will do your busywork.” The rest - vision, strategy, ethics - that’s still ours to own.
The Partner’s Dilemma
Here’s the paradox: the better AI gets, the more human the partner’s value becomes.
When everything is automated, the client’s new question isn’t “Can you build this?,” it’s “What should we build?”
That’s where expertise shows up. In judgment, not just code.
I used to think our advantage was technical depth. Now, I think it’s emotional intelligence - the ability to interpret what the business truly needs before the system does.
That’s not fluffy talk. It’s what distinguishes a vendor from a partner.
If your only job is to execute requirements, AI will replace you. If your job is to ask the right questions, you’ll be indispensable.
The PE Opportunity
The other headline from SuiteWorld was who showed up. When private equity value-creation teams fill the seats, it means something big is moving. These teams don’t chase trends, they chase efficiency across portfolios.
They’re buying companies and immediately standardizing on NetSuite to drive data consistency and speed. They don’t want ten different ERPs. They want one that can learn, adapt, and report in real time.
And they’re looking for partners who can make that happen.
That’s a generational opportunity. The firms that land one of these relationships don’t just get a client; they get a pipeline of clients.
SuiteWorld is where those relationships start - not in a cold email, not in a bid. In a hallway conversation where you can say, “We can help your next acquisition go live in half the time.”
I plan to build that into our 2026 roadmap: meet them before they buy, not after.
Rewriting the Role of a Partner
I’ve been thinking about the partner ecosystem a lot lately. For years, the value proposition was “we know NetSuite better than anyone.” That’s still true, but it’s not enough. The future isn’t about knowing the system. It’s about teaching the system to know you.
That’s where AI changes everything. Once the system learns from your data, your workflows, your tone - it becomes a digital extension of your business. But that also means partners need to grow up. We can’t just install and walk away. We have to stay, optimize, educate, and iterate. Clients don’t need a consultant once a year, they need a co-pilot every month.
SuiteWorld didn’t just show where NetSuite is going; it showed what we have to become to stay relevant.
“The future partner isn’t a developer, it’s a conductor.”
Bringing It Home
After SuiteWorld, I came back to my desk with a long list of tasks and a short list of priorities. Task lists change. Priorities don’t.
Here’s what’s fixed for me:
- Educate our clients. If they don’t understand the shift, they can’t benefit from it.
- Enable our CSMs. Every customer conversation is an opportunity to teach, not just to sell.
- Experiment safely. The companies that learn early will lead later.
- Build responsibly. Governance, compliance, and accuracy will separate leaders from everyone else.
SuiteWorld wasn’t just another trip to Vegas, it was a mirror. It showed me where we stand, what’s working, and what’s next.
And it reminded me that transformation doesn’t happen because a platform evolves. It happens because people do.
The Real Work Starts Now
If you’re a CFO, or operations leader reading this, here’s my advice: don’t wait for next year’s SuiteWorld to catch up. Start small. Automate one workflow. Run one AI-assisted close. Document the outcome. Teach your team. Then do it again. That’s how transformation happens - incrementally, intelligently, and with intent.
Because the truth is, NetSuite has already moved on. The question is, have we?
“ERP stopped being the memory of the business. It’s becoming the brain.”
SuiteWorld 2025 will be remembered as the year the platform became proactive. But it should also be remembered as the year partners were asked to lead differently. AI isn’t replacing us, it’s revealing whether we add real value.
If your company is wrestling with what SuiteWorld means for your roadmap - whether to experiment now or wait for native features - I’d love to trade notes.
Let’s make sure we’re not just watching the shift. Let’s be the ones who drive it.
Get Started Now
The easiest way to get started is to contact Techfino today. If you’d like a little more information first, you can download our ContinuedSuccess Whitepaper. Either way, we hope you’ve found this guide helpful and hope that we can further assist you on your path to leveling up your NetSuite Support.
