NetSuite Next is fast to deploy; CFOs are slower to adapt

By Rebecca Stone

Only 7% of finance functions reported a high or very high impact from AI in Gartner’s 2025 AI in Finance survey of 183 finance leaders, even as 59% used AI. The adoption rate was only one point above 58% a year earlier. The figures leave a wide gap between experimentation and operational impact as NetSuite moves AI into enterprise workflows.

NetSuite’s most recent announcements include wide availability of its AI-powered “Next” upgrade. In a November 11, 2026 interview with TechDay, Melbourne-based NetSuite partner Matthew Owens described the release as the company’s strongest product-and-feature update in years.

“This is the most product and feature that we've seen in many years,” Owens said. “It's good to see that NetSuite have made a decision to invest not only in AI and their products, but invest heavily in AI around their products.”

Owens said the investment gives partners access to different LLMs and models rather than binding them to NetSuite’s core. Annexa has operated for more than 30 years and claims more than 200 NetSuite implementations.

Bedding and homewares retailer Linen House, an Annexa customer for a decade, is already live with some agentic AI services that the partner built. Owens said the agents span finance, commerce and warehouse systems, and can work across all of them. He presented the deployment as evidence that AI agents can operate across a customer’s connected systems rather than inside one isolated tool.

What changes when NetSuite Next goes live?

TechDay described ERP upgrades as recurring sources of lost weekends, broken scripts and users searching for old buttons. Against that backdrop, Annexa’s experience with Next is unusually light.

As a SuiteCloud Developer Network partner, Annexa has been toggling between the two versions for some time. Owens said a user can click to NetSuite Next, wait for the system to reload and enter the new interface.

The new system uses the same data model and database as the previous version. In practical terms, Next functions primarily as a new user interface over the existing architecture.

Scripts, workflows and MCP connectors carry over. Owens did not present the migration as free of defects. He described Salesforce’s Lightning upgrade as a painful experience and expected niggles in NetSuite Next.

Some select customers are live in Australia, while bulk rollouts still await dates. Owens described availability as partial because the rollout is under way and its pace varies.

Does SuiteExpress make NetSuite easier to deploy?

SuiteExpress is NetSuite’s new agent-powered implementation toolset, initially aimed at software companies in the United States and Canada. TechDay asked Owens whether it could bring NetSuite within reach of smaller businesses.

His answer was qualified. Few businesses begin without dependencies, and removing one component can expose links with four other parts of the system. Replacing one piece is therefore rarely as simple as inserting a new one.

A full plug-and-play implementation in one week is rare in Annexa’s work, Owens said. The practical benefit is the ability to move faster, even when the project cannot start from a clean system.

Owens said the rise of agentic work had left Annexa busier than ever. He sees more opportunity because the toolset is new and uncharted. At the same time, he said some customers remain unclear about what an AI strategy requires.

Some customers told Annexa that their AI strategy amounted to buying an Anthropic license. Owens said those responses showed how partners were turning broad corporate ambition into a concrete procurement decision.

Why do MCP connectors create a security problem?

The Model Context Protocol, or MCP, allows AI models to reach into business systems. That reach can make agents more useful, but it also creates a data-governance problem. Owens said security in finance systems cannot be compromised and questioned where MCP-enabled models send enterprise data.

Oracle’s own MCP server applies role-based and user-based governance, Owens acknowledged. He said administrators can still enable connections, allowing people to activate MCP connectors with broad access to enterprise data.

Owens compared that access to putting keys to the kingdom into enterprise systems. He said the underlying risk is not new, but the ease of activating connectors can make an organization get into trouble much faster.

That trade-off complicates Annexa’s claim that migration itself is simple. Moving to Next can preserve existing connectors, while finance and IT teams still have to decide which systems those connectors may reach and what data they may expose.

What must CFOs change before agents take over?

Asked about CFO sentiment in Australia and New Zealand, Owens was blunt about the gap between software deployment and organizational readiness. He placed finance behind other functions in the adoption of agents that perform real work.

“I feel like finance is coming last. Few CFOs have a strategy for agents that do actual work; it's really just 'how do I forecast better'? How do I report better'? How do I close my books faster?'”

That caution aligns with Gartner’s figures: AI use inside finance functions rose only slightly, and high impact remained uncommon. Owens said most finance conversations still focus on better forecasting, reporting and faster book closures rather than redesigning work around agents.

Owens expects CFOs to move from risk mitigator to innovation driver as agentic AI connects commercial activity to finance operations. His rationale is that nearly every route through an agentic business process ultimately leads to a commerce transaction that the company must run.

Owens also said executive teams now understand that AI is not an IT initiative. He argues that the finance function cannot slow the business down as AI moves beyond an isolated technology program.

According to Annexa’s own project data, the CFO is usually the primary decision-maker pushing finance-system initiatives to the partner. That pattern shows a practical shift in procurement and influence, even if broader agent strategy remains immature.

Compliance obligations such as fringe benefits tax and ESG reporting were once addressed after the fact. Annexa now builds those requirements and obligations throughout the value chain, which Owens said has made the firm more efficient. The change turns compliance from a downstream reporting task into design input for new systems.

NetSuite Next can put a new interface in front of existing data through a click. The harder reload now sits with CFOs: they must define useful agent work, govern connected data and place compliance inside the value chain before the remaining Australian rollouts go live.