Introducing NetSuite’s new GenAI assistant

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are evolving beyond static tools into dynamic engines for insight and action that fuel business growth. In keeping pace with that trend NetSuite has released key enhancements in their 2025.1 update that provide users with more AI support and reporting. NetSuite has unveiled its new GenAI-powered assistant, a transformative feature designed to help organizations unlock faster, smarter, and more data-driven decision-making.

This isn’t just a chatbot layered onto existing software. The GenAI assistant works directly within the NetSuite environment, turning raw ERP data into actionable narratives, summaries, and recommendations. By bridging the gap between complex data and daily business decisions, NetSuite’s latest innovation empowers finance teams, operations leaders, and executives alike to spend less time gathering numbers and more time using them to guide strategy. This article explores what NetSuite ERP is, what makes this new AI assistant special, and why it is an important leap forward for organizations aiming to stay ahead and scale for growth.

For over two decades, NetSuite has been a pioneer in cloud-based ERP. Today, it serves more than 42,000 organizations worldwide, helping unify critical business processes into a single, cohesive platform. NetSuite is built on the principle of a unified data model, meaning all modules, from financial and customer relationship management (CRM) to inventory, e-commerce, and professional services automation, share the same real-time data.

This integration makes NetSuite uniquely powerful. Rather than juggling disconnected spreadsheets or multiple systems, teams can track revenue, forecast demand, manage supply chains, and analyze customer data all in one place. As a result, NetSuite isn’t just accounting software; it’s a central nervous system for growing and mid-market businesses that want real-time visibility and operational efficiency.

With the 2025.1 release, NetSuite is taking ERP into the era of generative AI. The new GenAI assistant introduces conversational AI, automated insights, and content generation embedded directly into NetSuite. What makes it groundbreaking is how seamlessly it interacts with live ERP data: users can type natural language questions, and the assistant instantly responds with tailored summaries, explanations, or draft reports.

Powered by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Generative AI, this assistant doesn’t just pull canned responses. Instead, it analyzes current data, detects trends or anomalies, and presents clear, business-ready commentary. For example, a finance manager can ask, “Explain why our Q2 margins dipped compared to Q1,” and receive a draft narrative backed by real data, ready to be included in executive reports or board presentations.

Far from being limited to finance, the assistant can also help operations teams track delayed purchase orders, help refine forecasts, or even generate slides summarizing key performance indicators. It transforms NetSuite ERP from a tool for storing data into a partner that explains and interprets it.

The power of the GenAI assistant comes alive in day-to-day business scenarios. Imagine the month-end close process, typically involving countless hours pulling data, drafting commentary, and explaining variances. Now, a controller can simply ask the assistant to “Draft a report on revenue vs forecast,” cutting manual work dramatically.

Financial planning and analysis teams can ask for real-time summaries of sales trends and receive context-aware analysis that highlights risks and opportunities. Operations leads might ask, “Show me purchase orders delayed over 30 days,” and immediately see actionable insights rather than manually reviewing reports.

Executives preparing for a board meeting can request, “Generate slides summarizing our top KPIs for the quarter,” saving time and ensuring consistency across presentations. By understanding the context of each question and linking back to live data, the GenAI assistant makes business intelligence conversational, fast, and intuitive, not limited to IT specialists or data analysts.

The NetSuite 2025.1 release brings the power of GenAI beyond the assistant itself, extending automated insights across Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and the NetSuite Analytics Warehouse. In the NetSuite Narrative Reporting module, part of EPM, GenAI now drafts detailed narratives and concise explanations from financial and transactional data, highlighting trends, variances, and time-based comparisons. This capability drastically reduces the manual effort needed to prepare financial and management reports, helping teams close the books faster at period end.

Meanwhile, in NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, GenAI transforms how analysts explore data. The new Auto-Insights feature can, with a single click, auto-generate visualizations that break down datasets from multiple angles, surfacing unexpected patterns and trends that might otherwise go unnoticed. The Explain feature then digs deeper by describing the root causes behind these trends, for example, identifying why customer late payments are increasing, and adds contextual narratives and anomaly detection to clarify the story the data tells.

NetSuite also introduces built-in AI-driven predictive models in the Analytics Warehouse that even non-technical users can activate directly from the Preview Features tile.

Models included:

• Churn prediction
• Stockout prediction
• Markdown prediction

By combining descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive AI, NetSuite’s 2025.1 release makes data exploration more intuitive, proactive, and accessible across the organization, turning data not just into insight, but into clear, actionable guidance.

NetSuite’s new GenAI assistant isn’t just a time-saver, it fundamentally changes how teams interact with data. But the biggest advantage from AI is time savings: where month-end reports and financial narratives might once have taken entire days to draft, the assistant can generate a polished first draft in minutes. Teams can then focus their energy on reviewing, refining, and analyzing rather than starting from scratch. This opens up opportunities for your team to strategize on refining processes and achieving growth.

The assistant also ensures teams make more data-driven decisions. Because it draws directly from live ERP data, the insights it generates are always current, not based on last week’s exports. This reduces the risk of acting on outdated information and empowers leaders to react faster to trends or challenges. The consistency and accuracy it brings to reports and narratives help organizations present a unified voice, something especially critical when communicating with decision-makers.

The GenAI assistant makes advanced data analysis accessible to all business users. Employees across finance, operations, or even customer service can ask natural language questions and get instant answers. As companies grow, this scalability means insights remain available to all, without adding manual reporting overhead or hiring additional analysts or support.

Adopting the GenAI assistant isn’t about replacing teams, it’s about amplifying what skilled people can do. Finance leaders are under pressure to produce deeper, more strategic insights, often with the same resources. Meanwhile, business executives demand real-time answers to increasingly complex questions. The GenAI assistant bridges that gap by handling the routine work of drafting, summarizing, and explaining, freeing experts to focus on higher-value analysis.

In a broader sense, this move aligns with a larger shift in business: AI is no longer futuristic, it’s becoming a core part of how successful organizations operate. By integrating AI into everyday workflows now, NetSuite users can future-proof their processes, making them more agile and competitive in a market where speed and clarity matter more than ever.

The real power of AI doesn’t come from simply turning it on. To see the best results, organizations need the right data strategy, thoughtful implementation, and ongoing support. That’s where working with a NetSuite Alliance Partner like Rand Group makes the difference.

With over two decades of experience helping clients navigate ERP transformations, we combine technical expertise and deep business understanding. Our certified NetSuite consultants know how to tailor the GenAI assistant to match each organization’s unique workflows, business language, and data priorities. Whether it’s configuring the assistant to generate narratives aligned with company KPIs, integrating it into existing dashboards, or training teams to use AI tools confidently, Rand Group ensures that the assistant becomes a real asset rather than a novelty.

NetSuite’s GenAI assistant is only the first step. Looking ahead, NetSuite envisions even deeper AI capabilities: predictive analytics that alert users to future cash flow risks or inventory issues before they happen; dashboards that automatically adapt based on seasonality or user role; and AI-generated recommendations for pricing strategies, supplier selection, and more. NetSuite is evolving into an active participant in decision-making rather than a passive database. Organizations that embrace AI today will be the ones best positioned to take advantage of these coming innovations.

To truly unlock this potential, organizations need more than technology. They need a partner with a thoughtful approach to implementation, data, and training. Partner with Rand Group today for your NetSuite implementation or support and embrace a digital transformation. Connect with one our NetSuite experts and see how AI can boost your reporting, planning, and decision-making.