NetSuite’s VP of Product Management, James Chisham, details how the company’s biggest-ever set of announcements is bringing AI out of the realm of hype and into practical, verifiable workflows for every size of finance team, from instant balance sheets to the new Model Context Protocol (MCP).
As SuiteWorld 2025 moved into its final sessions, James Chisham, VP of Product Management at Oracle NetSuite, summed up the atmosphere in one word — excitement.
“It’s probably the biggest set of announcements we’ve made in 27 years,” he said, reflecting on NetSuite’s transformation into what he described as “really moving into the AI age.”
For Chisham, the mood in Las Vegas wasn’t just about scale or spectacle. It was about accessibility. “For whatever size organization, whatever the complexity or maturity of your finance team, I think we’re delivering AI tools that will work for everybody, and that’s a key thing for me.”
Across the event floor, thousands of customers shared that they’re already using AI in some form, but many still struggle to decide where it fits best. “There’s a lot of information and a lot of technology available,” said Chisham.
“The challenge now is helping teams go away and understand how to consume some of these things, to lead customers and partners to the tools that suit them best.”
That blend of excitement and practicality has become a recurring theme in the finance technology space, and Chisham is clear that NetSuite’s role is not to overwhelm but to guide.
“People are super excited. They want this technology. Now it’s about how to apply it.”
A former finance professional himself, Chisham’s enthusiasm for automation is grounded in experience.
“I’ve worked in finance for many years, and I just think of the days when I’d put a paper ledger on a desk, writing accounting transactions,” he recalled. “Now we can ask the system to produce a balance sheet, operational cash flow, or a quarterly margin and it does it instantly. That’s a massive time saving.”
For him, the shift isn’t just about speed. It’s about redefining finance’s role in the business.
“We’ve always thought about finance departments as being the recorder of transactions,” he said. “Now it’s less about looking at the past and more about enabling teams to look into the future and add real value.”
Among the technologies Chisham highlighted most enthusiastically was the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a new standard for connecting AI assistants to live business systems.
“It’s not even a year old, and within weeks customers have working solutions,” he said. “They can take a picture of inventory, understand what the item is, and it interacts with NetSuite. I think that’s very cool.”
He sees the protocol, and the integrations with models like Claude and ChatGPT, as a natural step forward. “People are already familiar with these tools. To be able to use them in a business context is really powerful.”
Asked where to draw the line between experimentation and responsible implementation, Chisham said that “we’re still scratching the surface.”
“Technology is moving very quickly, but we’re mindful of doing it right, delivering solutions in a way our customers feel secure and compliant.”
Trust, he added, is non-negotiable. “If we’re delivering a revenue number – something the business really relies on – we need to be absolutely sure that number’s correct. What we’ve demonstrated is that users can review it, drill into it, and see exactly where it comes from.”
That principle, he said, extends to agentic AI. “Generative AI is just one school of AI,” he explained. “We also have classical machine learning and now agentic workflows. But for me, it’s still about having the human in the loop. We have highly trained people, and we want them to stay part of that process.”
Not every finance professional feels ready to adopt AI, and Chisham acknowledged the need for gradual progression.
“For some users, maybe Ask Oracle will be great, because they can ask questions and dip their toe in,” he said. “Then there’s MCP, where they can interact with AI more directly, and at the other end you’ve got agentic workflows, which are more complex. It’s a pathway.”
He also noted that maturity levels vary widely. “Some customers already have AI teams, but that’s not the same for smaller businesses. They might start small – use Ask Oracle or Financial Exception Management – and grow as their confidence builds.”
When asked about misunderstanding of AI features, Chisham said most issues stemmed from unfamiliarity, not overuse.
“What’s important is that people understand the tool versus the use case. That’s why we build AI around workflows and processes, so it feels familiar.”
He dismissed the idea of AI as a standalone “kit” dropped into the business. “We’re not saying, here’s all this magic. We’re saying, these are key areas where it will drive business benefit.”
Chisham sees the next year as one of accelerated adoption rather than dramatic reinvention. “People are seeing the art of the possible,” he said. “With the extensibility of SuiteCloud, customers and partners can now do some really great things.”
His focus remains on helping finance teams apply AI in ways that feel natural and safe. “We’re constantly pushing boundaries,” he said, “but we’ll do it in a way that brings customers with us.”