At SuiteWorld 2026, NetSuite’s founder outlines how AI is transforming business software—and what the shift means for CFOs.
When Evan Goldberg, founder and executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, declares that ERP as we know it is over, the statement carries particular weight. Goldberg helped pioneer cloud-based enterprise software in 1998, challenging the conventional wisdom about how businesses should manage their financial and operational systems.
Nearly three decades later, he sees artificial intelligence driving an equally consequential transformation.
Speaking with CFO Thought Leader at SuiteWorld 2026 in Las Vegas, Goldberg described a future in which ERP systems do more than organize information, automate transactions, and generate reports. Increasingly, they will anticipate problems, recommend solutions, and execute work—with human oversight.
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To Goldberg, the transformation rests on three developments: AI becoming the primary user interface, ERP becoming tailored to individual businesses, and software gaining the ability to perform more work autonomously.
The implications extend well beyond technology.
Goldberg believes finance teams will increasingly apply their analytical capabilities across the enterprise, identifying operational issues before they affect financial results. He also sees the traditional month-end close giving way to more continuous financial visibility.
Rather than focusing exclusively on achieving a zero-day close, Goldberg argues that CFOs should consider how accurately their systems can reflect the business throughout the reporting period.
That shift could fundamentally change how finance contributes to decision-making.
“We’re really trying to free up the CFO from firefighting mode to strategic analysis mode,” Goldberg explained.
For CFOs, the emerging opportunity is not simply to automate existing responsibilities. It is to redirect financial expertise toward decisions that shape business performance—while increasingly intelligent systems handle more of the underlying work.
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The following exchange is drawn from our SuiteWorld interview, with light editing for clarity and length.
CFOTL: Yesterday, you declared that ERP as we know it is over. That’s a remarkable statement coming from someone who helped pioneer cloud ERP. What’s changed that makes you believe we’re entering an entirely different era?
Evan Goldberg: I’d say three things. The first is that AI is the UI now. You don’t have to learn new ways to navigate to get to the information you want. It comes directly to you. You interact with natural language, and to the degree that you need a UI, AI builds it tailored to the task at hand.
The second element is that ERP is really built for you. It’s tailored to you as a user, but also tailored to you as a company. We combine the knowledge about your business that you’ve built up over years with the knowledge about your industry that we’ve built up over the years. SuiteExpress is our new approach to implementing NetSuite much faster.
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And finally, the system can do so much of the work behind the scenes that it really becomes an autonomous suite—only in the ways that you approve. Over time, as you become more comfortable with it, the system can do so much for you and only involve you when you need to be involved. That’s a fundamental shift in ERP.
CFOTL: ERP implementations have traditionally been expensive and disruptive. How much of that burden can AI realistically eliminate?
Evan Goldberg: We have customers going live in 22 days in one case, so it’s obviously relieving a lot of the burden.
AI can ingest information about how you’re using your systems currently, the data from your existing systems, and everything you tell us in interviews. It ingests that once, and you never have to repeat it.
One thing is money, but the other thing is time. Time is your most precious resource. You don’t get these systems to sit in an implementation for months. You get them to get up and running quickly and realize true value.
AI can bring together customer-specific knowledge and NetSuite-specific knowledge and get you to go-live way faster than ever.
CFOTL: Historically, companies have grown into NetSuite as their financial operations became more complex. Now, with Quick Start, you’re reaching them much earlier. What’s the opportunity?
Evan Goldberg: Nobody wants to go through an implementation, even if it’s relatively quick and easy. You’d like continuity in your systems, and certainly you’d want the power of ERP early in your company.
That’s just never been available. You’ve had to wait until you get bigger, have the resources, and maybe have some IT people to help you.
We’re first targeting tech startups with a strong financial foundation that’s tailored to them and ready when they want to move to full NetSuite.
It’s working in the background and available wherever you want it—in ChatGPT, Claude, Slack, or through its own user experience.
You can have a professional financial system running things behind the scenes before you have more than a handful of employees.