As UK businesses look to improve productivity while managing rising costs and growing workloads, AI is creating opportunities to reduce administrative tasks and make better use of existing resources.
NetSuite is looking to put that potential into practice with the UK rollout of NetSuite Next, the next generation of its cloud ERP suite, and Ask Oracle, its conversational AI assistant. The capabilities are designed to reduce routine work, make business information easier to access and help employees make decisions faster.
For Nicky Tozer, senior vice president, EMEA, Oracle NetSuite, the opportunity is about helping business leaders manage growing demands without adding complexity or putting more pressure on their teams.
“What they want is for their systems to help take some of that pressure away,” she says.
The rollout aligns with NetSuite’s Autonomous Suite vision, unveiled at SuiteWorld 2026 in Las Vegas, which aims to move beyond software that records business activity towards systems that can identify problems, recommend next steps and help employees take action.
From finding answers to getting things done
NetSuite Next combines embedded AI with business data and workflows to help employees understand what’s happening across their organisation and act on that information as part of their everyday work.
Ask Oracle allows users to ask questions about their business and access insights using everyday language. Its rollout within existing UK NetSuite accounts means customers can explore AI capabilities in a familiar environment before extending that experience when they are ready to move to NetSuite Next.
Together, they lay the groundwork for more advanced AI capabilities that can help employees move beyond finding information to getting work done.
Crucially, more autonomous software doesn’t mean removing people from the decision-making process. AI can surface insights and recommend actions, but employees still provide the checks and balances.
“It’s about giving people the confidence to use AI. They can see how it arrived at an answer, examine the information behind it and decide what to do next,” Tozer explains.
Doing more without adding to the workload
For many businesses, growth brings additional complexity. More customers, transactions and operational demands can put pressure on already stretched teams.
“They don’t want to have to be implementing new systems,” says Tozer.
That’s an important consideration in NetSuite’s approach. Existing customers can begin using Ask Oracle within their current NetSuite environment and build on that experience as they move to NetSuite Next, rather than starting again with an entirely new implementation.
By making financial and operational information easier to access through AI, NetSuite is also seeking to reduce the administrative burden on employees.
Finance teams, for example, could spend less time investigating discrepancies or delays in financial reporting, while operations teams could more easily identify inventory issues or fulfilment bottlenecks.
The potential benefit is not simply completing tasks faster, but giving employees more time to focus on customers, problem-solving and opportunities for growth.
Adopting AI at their own pace
While businesses increasingly recognise the potential of AI to improve productivity, not every organisation will want to introduce new capabilities at the same pace.
“I think it’s perfectly natural,” Tozer says. “We want customers to move at a speed that suits them.”
Customers can explore the capabilities gradually, starting with specific processes and expanding their use of AI as they become more confident.
Ask Oracle operates within each customer’s NetSuite environment, respecting existing roles, permissions and business configurations. Its answers are based only on information users are authorised to access, and users can review how those answers were reached.
This emphasis on oversight is central to the Autonomous Suite vision, where AI can increasingly carry out work across business processes within boundaries established by customers.
Making more time for what matters
For UK businesses facing pressure to improve efficiency, the arrival of NetSuite Next and Ask Oracle offers an opportunity to explore how AI could reduce routine work and make business information more accessible.
As business software becomes more autonomous, the potential goes beyond saving time on individual tasks. AI could increasingly help businesses identify problems, recommend solutions and take on more of the work involved in resolving them, while employees retain oversight of important decisions.
For business leaders, the question will be how effectively they can put these capabilities to work. The real opportunity lies in reducing the day-to-day administrative burden without sacrificing control, giving teams more time to focus on customers, growth and the decisions that move their businesses forward.
