The convergence of cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and artificial intelligence (AI) is as expected as it is transformative. For some years now, cloud ERPs have been shifting well beyond their traditional role of managing core business processes, and it’s the quietly integrated powerful AI capabilities that are really blasting these systems out of their metaphorical corners. Because, while cloud ERPs have long been celebrated for their efficiency, accessibility, and scalability, it's the hidden AI within these systems that promises to push businesses to new heights of productivity, innovation, and strategic decision-making.
In this blog, we explore the latest NetSuite AI capabilities and how they are upturning decision-making, automating operations, enhancing customer experiences, and so much more.
Let’s start with a quick overview of cloud ERP and AI
NetSuite is a cloud ERP, a centralised platform that unifies essential business functions. From tracking financial transactions and inventory levels to coordinating projects and customer interactions, NetSuite act as an organisation’s digital nerve centre to enhance collaboration, data accuracy, and decision-making across departments.
AI simulates human intelligence via machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and algorithms to completely upend how businesses collect, analyse, and interpret data. In the tech-driven corporate landscape, today AI is being put to work uncovering valuable insights, predicting trends, and automating routine tasks with unhuman-like precision.
When integrated with NetSuite, AI enables the platform to become more than just a tool for data storage and retrieval. It becomes an intelligent engine able to analyse vast datasets in real-time, generate accurate forecasts, and offer predictive insights.
Greater intelligence and insight
Decision-making has traditionally relied on either historical data and manual analysis or gut instinct. Both can lead to delayed responses and missed opportunities. NetSuite’s AI-powered analytics, however, turns the vast amount of data generated by various business functions – even third-party sources - into a valuable asset.
With access to real-time, data-driven insights, business leaders can uncover patterns, trends, and correlations, and make decisions grounded in concrete evidence rather than assumptions. In fact, embedded AI capabilities can take on many analytics tasks that had previously required human intelligence to complete, such as analysing and informing business processes, resourcing, supply chain, inventory, forecasting and production strategies to better streamline operations and introduce greater efficiencies.
NetSuite Analytics Warehouse (NSAW)
A great example of AI helping organisations get the most value possible out of their data is NetSuite Analytics Warehouse (NSAW) – a prebuilt data warehouse and analytics solution for NetSuite customers. It's powered by the Oracle Analytics Cloud, a machine learning-powered analytical tool, and Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse, a data warehouse that automatically tunes, scales, provisions and patches itself. Leveraging these AI-driven innovations, NSAW consolidates and centralises access to NetSuite data - and data from other cloud or on-premise applications - crunches the numbers and delivers accurate answers to all those pressing business questions.
So NSAW can be used to, for example, enhance prediction accuracy by analysing historical customer trends and patterns to gain insights and a deeper understanding of future growth possibilities.
NetSuite Planning and Budgeting (NPBS)
Another notable AI example is found in NetSuite's NetSuite Planning and Budgeting module. Using predictive algorithms NPBS continually monitors and analyses plans, forecasts and variances, it automates data analysis to uncover and highlight trends, anomalies and correlations at speed.
NetSuite Benchmark 360
Then there’s NetSuite Benchmark 360, a NetSuite tool that uses AI and machine learning to let organisations analyse financial metrics and see how they stack up to similar organisations in their industry and region. Businesses can then better understand where they are doing well and use AI generated suggestments to improve.
NetSuite Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
Bundling together NetSuite Planning and Budgeting, Account Reconciliation, Financial Close Management, and Enhanced Reporting, NetSuite EPM connects the financial planning, financial close, and reporting processes, and puts the focus firmly on proactivity. AI is used in NetSuite EPM in various ways, but the standout is the 'narrative reporting’. This feature provides contextual insights into raw financial data, making data more accessible and actionable for decision-makers.
Automating routine tasks
Robotic process automation (RPA) is a must for efficient business operations, and NetSuite hasit in bucketloads allowing the efficient automation of mundane, repetitive, and low-value tasks such as tax reporting and account reconciliation.
NetSuite Bill Capture
Traditional manual data entry is prone to errors, consuming valuable time and resources. AI-driven automation employs machine learning algorithms to extract and validate data from various sources accurately. For example, NetSuite Bill Capture has recently been enhanced with new AI processes on top of its existing machine learning (ML) optical capture, allowing customers to automatically categorise expense data.
NetSuite AP Automation
Invoice approval processes tend to involve multiple stakeholders, manual routing, and potential delays. With AI, invoices can beautomatically matched to purchase orders and contracts, minimising discrepancies and ensuring timely transactions.
For example, NetSuite AP Automation - part of NetSuite SuiteBanking - automates the entire invoice-to-pay process across data capture and reconciliation, to increase efficiencies and reduce fraud and accounts payable (AP) processing costs.
NetSuite Text Enhance
Another new feature is NetSuite Text Enhance which aims to further increase productivity by providing practical help within a person’s daily workflow. Text Enhance is integrated across the suite to benefit all users and generates context-sensitive content using a combination of ERP, CRM, and other systems data. For example, sales teams can automatically generate contextual email responses – using a combination of ERP, CRM, and supply chain data.
Personalised customer experiences
Traditional CRM systems store customer data, interactions, and history, but AI-enhanced cloud ERPs take things a step further. By analysing and understanding customer behaviour, preferences, and needs, businesses can tailor their interactions, products, and services to create they type of experiences that keep customers coming back.
Tailored marketing campaigns and customer service
AI algorithms can be put to work examining purchasing behaviour, browsing patterns, and demographic information to segment customers into relevant groups. From there, businesses can create personalised marketing content, recommendations, and offers that resonate better with individual customers. AI can also anticipate potential issues and proactively address them.
For example, AI can detect patterns indicating a potential service disruption and alert customer service teams to take preventive action. Or an AI-powered chatbot can assist customers by providing them with relevant, real-time information about their orders, invoices, and shipments.
NetSuite Customer 360
In NetSuite, Customer 360 uses AI to generate headlines and summary of key insights on the shopper’s behaviour right on the customer record.
Plenty of AI innovations and many more to come
AI, ML and automation are now embedded throughout cloud ERP platforms like NetSuite, elevating their power beyond mere accounting solutions. As time goes by, these capabilities will grow and further cement cloud ERP’s role as a dynamic and intelligent partner ready to support decision-makers with valuable insights, automate all and any repetitive tasks, and offer personalised experiences that forge stronger connections with customers.
