Oracle's NetSuite is getting AI features at no cost to customers

Oracle's NetSuite is adding a slew of new generative AI features. The bonus for customers? It will cost them nothing to get the new functions.

Oracle NetSuite Founder and EVP Evan Goldberg tells Yahoo Finance the new features will allow customers to "access generative AI for any kind of text that they are producing and it will make appropriate text for however they are using it."

As for why Oracle (ORCL) isn't charging for the generative AI capabilities, Goldberg says, "The future of business systems has AI everywhere. I mean, having a business system without AI is going to be like a car without wheels, so it really doesn't make sense." He adds, "We're not going to sell an unintelligent version of our business system."

Watch the video above to hear how NetSuite's customers are using AI and how Oracle is protecting customer data.

Editor's note: This article was written by Stephanie Mikulich.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Oracle NetSuite is rolling out a massive upgrade to its products and it's going to cost clients nothing. The new features using generative AI to help with supply chain sales, operations, and finances using a technique called assisted authoring. Evan Goldberg is founder of Oracle NetSuite. He joins us on set now. Good to talk to you today. Tell us how this all works.

EVAN GOLDBERG: Well, we're bringing AI to our 37,000-plus customers so that they don't have to become AI experts. They can just use NetSuite and right there in place when they're using the system, the business management system of record for their company that helps them with their finances, their sales, and their HR, they can access generative AI for any kind of text that they're producing. And it'll make appropriate text for however they're using it. In different parts of the system, it operates differently.

- And Evan, you're not-- you're not going to charge customers extra for these AI features? Why not, Evan? Everybody else is.

EVAN GOLDBERG: Yeah. I mean, the future of business systems has AI everywhere. I mean, having a business system without AI is going to be like a car without wheels. And so it really doesn't make sense. We're not going to sell an unintelligent version of our business system.

- But Evan, you know, it's expensive though, right? I mean Gen AI is expensive. So is there any risk here or are you assuming you take a cost hit with that?

EVAN GOLDBERG: We've been in the Cloud business for over 25 years. We were the first cloud company. And what we've seen is that hardware costs, software costs, those types of things tend to work themselves out. And we think we can deliver great value to our customers, and keep our prices how they've been, and deliver all this AI.

AKIKO FUJITA: And you've pointed out, this isn't necessarily a premium. This is the norm of where we're going right now. As you talk to some of your clients, you see how businesses are integrating AI, what are you hearing about where it goes from here?

EVAN GOLDBERG: Well, we have the benefit of-- we're not trying to build the next moviemaking AI. And that's great that people are doing that. Oracle as a whole has kind of a laser focus on how businesses are going to use AI. So we are out there scouring for the next great advance in dealing with numbers. We don't-- large language models are about words but businesses are largely about numbers and knowing your numbers. So that's our job, is to get this complex technology in the hands of business users that aren't technology experts in a simple way.

AKIKO FUJITA: But is it largely about efficiency still? Are we seeing it within HR? I mean how are you using it?

EVAN GOLDBERG: Yes, it's definitely about doing more with less. I mean, companies obviously want to be as efficient as possible but then they want to grow. Our customers are fast-growing companies and they want to be able to do things like-- we've been working with AI for many years before generative AI for things like, what are the best products to sell to my customers, who might I be able to expand my sales into. And you know, what salespeople are operating the most effectively and how can I utilize them efficiently.

- And Evan, when you make the announcement like today, one natural question, of course, is customer data. What happens with that data. Is it-- is it shared with LLM providers or others? What's your response there?

EVAN GOLDBERG: Well, again, you know, Oracle's long history is about securing data. So that's top of mind for us, absolutely. And we use the generative AI service inside Oracle's Cloud Infrastructure so your data stays generally within OCI. And we will make sure that data is 1,000% secure because that's what our customers rely on us for.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, working with so many businesses, I mean you certainly have a good pulse on where things are right now. What's the sentiment right now in terms of investing in this technology?

EVAN GOLDBERG: You know, again, I think we have companies from so many different industries. And if you talk to a software company, they are really cognizant of everything going on and they have great ideas about how they want to use AI. And we're going to bring more complex features to them.

But for your average small business, they're just worrying about how am I going to-- where am I going to make-- next sales are going to come from and how am I going to make payroll? And so for those companies, I think that's where the real promise of what Oracle and NetSuite are doing lies.

- Evan, final question here, listen, you got-- you have plenty of rivals, right? Microsoft, SAP. How does what you announced today, Evan, how does it sort of you think differentiate and distinguish you from the competition?

EVAN GOLDBERG: Yeah. Well, I mean, AI is data hungry. The best AI comes from the best data. And the way NetSuite works is it's one system. You really have a single source of truth and data about your business. And so I think that's really where our competitive advantage lies, is that the AI can consume information not just from one part of your business but from the entire business

- Evan, thanks so much for joining us today. Appreciate it. Thanks for coming on.