NetSuite enables organizations to connect their own LLMs to data within NetSuite. But this NetSuite AI Connector Service promises more than just this basic capability. With the adoption of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), NetSuite should be the most intelligent, extensible, and “AI-ready” ERP platform.
Brian Chess, SVP of Technology and AI, Oracle NetSuite, recommends viewing this integration service as more than just the MCP addition. “The NetSuite AI Connector Service gives customers a secure, flexible, and scalable way to connect their own AI to NetSuite.”
Many benefits
According to Chess, developers can determine exactly what their AI system can see and do with precise permissions and role-based access settings. “Bring your own AI” is the magic word, with support for multiple assistants or agent platforms simultaneously.
The word “integration” probably scares some people. Chess acknowledges that AI integrations with ERP systems can sometimes be tricky, but the new functionality should make deployment and lifecycle management easy. In addition, the integration service will be familiar to seasoned NetSuite users. The existing extensibility model has been applied here to prevent “risky workarounds” or shadow IT.
ISVs can use this to build and package SuiteApps and, according to Chess, build “a new category of intelligent ERP extensions.”
A different path for ERP
NetSuite itself acknowledges that it has chosen a different strategy for implementing AI within an ERP system. Whereas a party such as Salesforce opts for an ’embedded’ solution and presents this to the customer as an option, NetSuite hopes to position its new offering as a more flexible alternative. The implicit message: they want to take advantage of other people’s agentic AI and make this offering a free choice for customers, without having to build deep AI tooling themselves.
We are still early enough in the adoption of agentic AI that many organizations do not have a developed strategy for its implementation. This means that companies such as Oracle NetSuite can still set up their stack to steer customers in a certain direction. However, vendors clearly disagree with this interpretation, which means that it may be years before true standardization takes place. For now, NetSuite is aiming at a moving target, allowing its own AI-ERP connection to move along as desired.
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