Evan Goldberg on NetSuite’s Origins, AI Plans and Business Software

NetSuite’s founding idea joined two observations: small companies needed better tools to grow, and the internet could change who runs business software. Evan Goldberg says a short conversation with Larry Ellison brought those ideas together. Today, as head of Oracle’s NetSuite Global Business Unit, Goldberg sees a similar opening in AI: business systems could move beyond recording activity and reporting on it to offer guidance and automate work.

Goldberg co-founded NetSuite in 1998. The company’s software covers areas including financial management, customer relations and e-commerce. Before Oracle acquired NetSuite, he served as its chief technology officer and board chairman. Earlier, he spent more than eight years at Oracle, working on ways to make complex database technology accessible to more users. He studied applied mathematics at Harvard College.

A company shaped by two ideas

Goldberg describes NetSuite’s beginnings as his “mandatory Silicon Valley failure.” The experience showed him that the tools available to run and expand a small business needed improvement. He wanted to build a new generation of business software that could help companies grow.

Ellison was thinking about a different part of the same problem: how the internet might change software distribution. As Goldberg recalled, Ellison believed people would consume software over the internet, with the provider responsible for operating it. That arrangement would shift the work of maintaining systems away from each customer.

“It was a really important five-minute conversation that led to the merger of those two ideas and the creation of NetSuite,” Goldberg said.

The name captured the concept: “net” plus “suite.” The company would deliver a set of business applications over the internet. That model made software available from different locations without requiring each customer to run the underlying system on its own infrastructure. Goldberg’s account presents the company’s origin as a practical response to both a business need and a new distribution method.

Focus on customers through downturns

Goldberg says the company’s experience during the financial crisis reinforced the value of working closely with existing customers. When customers struggled, NetSuite looked for ways to help them understand which parts of the software they weren’t using. The work became a discipline centered on helping customers get more from systems they already had.

That approach also informs his advice about distractions. New technologies can attract attention, but a company can lose sight of the people already relying on its products. Goldberg’s point is that customer support and product adoption are ongoing work, especially when customers are under pressure. A new feature has limited value if users don’t understand how to apply the tools they already have.

He links that lesson to the current interest in AI. Goldberg has worked with AI for years and expects the systems to become more capable. For business software, he sees potential in moving beyond basic tracking and reporting toward advice and assistance. That could help users make better use of business data and improve daily operations.

AI as part of the application

Oracle’s Text Enhance feature is one early example of AI appearing in NetSuite. Goldberg describes it as the first of multiple AI capabilities planned across the application. The direction he calls “AI everywhere” means embedding these functions in the product rather than treating AI as a separate add-on.

His framing carries a clear product expectation: AI capabilities will become a standard part of business applications. He argues that software without them would feel incomplete as these tools develop. The interview doesn’t specify a rollout schedule, performance figures or a detailed account of how each planned capability will work, so the practical value will depend on what NetSuite delivers and how well those features fit existing workflows.

Goldberg’s broader ambition is to apply newer AI methods and increased computing capacity to business data. The aim is to surface useful insights and automate tasks, freeing employees to spend more time on work that helps their organizations progress. That promise depends on the system producing relevant guidance from the data available to it; the interview describes the goal, rather than reporting measured results.

Business software has a user experience problem

Goldberg also points to a longstanding weakness in business applications: users have often accepted clumsy experiences because that was what workplace software offered. That expectation is changing as people who grew up using consumer technology bring different standards to work. They increasingly expect business tools to be as clear and pleasant to use as the other applications in their lives.

For software vendors, improving the interface is connected to adoption. People are more likely to use features they can understand and navigate, including any AI assistance built into the product. Better design won’t by itself ensure that generated suggestions are accurate or useful, but it can affect whether users engage with them at all. Goldberg says NetSuite and Oracle have been working to improve the business software experience in response to these expectations.

Efficiency with a wider purpose

Goldberg’s account of NetSuite’s social impact work began with a familiar operational problem. His wife, then president of a parent-teacher association, struggled with the group’s financial systems for tracking donations and expenses. He suggested trying NetSuite. The software worked for the organization, and its anytime, anywhere access made an impression at a time when that wasn’t yet typical.

The experience led Goldberg to consider other organizations that needed efficient operations but weren’t pursuing financial returns in the usual sense. Nonprofits, he said, want to make the greatest mission impact with their money and staff. NetSuite responded by creating a social impact organization that provides support to other organizations doing charitable work.

Across these examples, Goldberg’s account returns to a consistent theme: technology matters when it helps people run organizations more effectively. NetSuite began by putting business software on the internet, and its AI plans extend that idea toward systems that can interpret information and assist with work. The next measure of progress will be whether those features deliver useful guidance, fit how customers operate and make complex business tools easier to use.