AI is creating a world of new possibilities for businesses. We see it every day in how our customers are taking advantage of the AI capabilities embedded across NetSuite. But what if you could bring your own AI and decide how it interacts with your data in NetSuite? 

I’m excited to introduce the new NetSuite AI Connector Service, a protocol-driven integration service supporting Model Context Protocol (MCP). In case you haven’t heard of MCP, it is emerging as a critical standard for structured communication between large language model (LLM)-powered agents and other systems.

While we call it an integration service, it’s more than that – it’s a foundational step in making NetSuite the most intelligent, extensible, and AI-ready ERP system. The NetSuite AI Connector Service gives customers a secure, flexible, and scalable way to connect their own AI to NetSuite. This is important because it:

• Enables developers to define exactly what their AI system can see and do, with full permissions and role-based access
• Supports multiple assistants and agent platforms in a standards-based way, allowing for a “bring your own AI” model
• Turns complex AI-ERP integrations into modular, reusable SuiteApps, streamlining deployment and lifecycle management
• Aligns AI integrations with NetSuite’s existing extensibility model, eliminating the need for risky workarounds or shadow IT
• Allows partners and ISVs to build, package, and monetise AI-driven SuiteApps, creating a new category of intelligent ERP extensions

What’s more, the NetSuite AI Connector Service will enable NetSuite users to engage with NetSuite data via the user interfaces of popular AI assistants.

Here are more details on why we’re so excited about the new NetSuite AI Connector:

• Sets a new industry standard for AI-ERP integration: While most ERP vendors are adding AI as fixed, embedded features, we are taking a platform-first approach by introducing a protocol-based, extensible architecture. This allows structured, governed, and developer-defined interactions between ERP and external AI systems. It establishes a new benchmark for what enterprise AI integration should look like – secure, flexible, and open – and puts pressure on other vendors to rethink their approach.
• Opens ERP to the agent ecosystem: By enabling integration with third-party AI agent platforms, NetSuite becomes one of the first major ERP systems to support agent-based automation across systems and reinforces our position at the forefront of the agent-driven enterprise software.
• Empowers the SuiteCloud developer and partner ecosystem: Instead of bypassing technical teams with closed AI features, we are putting power into the hands of developers through Custom MCP Tools and the SuiteCloud MCP Server. This creates a new category of intelligent ERP extensions and a new frontier of opportunity for the NetSuite ecosystem.
• Provides customers with long-term flexibility and choice: With support for bring-your-own-AI and an extensible, protocol-based design, we are ensuring our customers gain the freedom to select the AI models and platforms that best align with their evolving needs. This approach enables customers to adapt quickly as technologies advance, ensuring continuous innovation on their terms.

For all these reasons and more, this is a big deal as it reflects a fundamental architectural shift. By exposing ERP data, context, and logic to external AI systems through secure, governed interfaces, we are laying the groundwork for true AI-native ERP: systems that not only automate tasks, but also collaborate with AI to reason, take action, and drive business outcomes.

We will be sharing more details on NetSuite AI Connector Service at SuiteWorld taking place October 6-9 in Las Vegas. If you would like to learn more about how your business can take advantage of it today, please visit NetSuite AI Connector Service.

Contributed by Brian Chess, Senior Vice President of Technology and AI, Oracle NetSuite

Most sole traders spend time and money trying to be seen – whether that is investing in SEO, building a website or running ads. However, visibility is only part of the equation. What happens after someone gets in touch is just as important.

An enquiry arrives – whether it is a web form submission, a text, a DM or a missed call. It should be the start of a new job or customer relationship. However, for many businesses, this is where momentum slows.

Yet, for some solo operators, how enquiries are handled isn’t given the same attention as how they are generated. And without a clear and consistent process for capturing and responding to interest, good leads may go unanswered – not because it is not your intention, but because you are already stretched.

Where growth quietly slows down

In conversations with sole traders across Australia and New Zealand, whether they are mobile mechanics, florists or health professionals, there is a recurring theme: “I’m working non-stop, but I’m still not getting enough business.”

In many cases, the challenge isn’t visibility or marketing. It’s what happens next.

You have done the work to be found. Your website is ranking, your social presence is active, maybe you have even launched a campaign. Enquiries start coming in, but then?

They sit in your inbox, or land in your DMs after hours while you are on the job. You see the notification, intend to follow up, but with everything else demanding your attention, it slips past.

This is where growth often slows, not because of a lack of demand, but because the process for handling that demand isn’t keeping pace. And because it happens quietly in the background, it often goes unnoticed until the pipeline starts to feel dry.

Speed matters more than charm

We all like to think that a business’s quality of offering or product, personality or reputation will carry through to success and growth. However, research consistently shows that when it comes to lead conversion, speed is also fundamental. If your business doesn’t respond within the hour, your chances of converting that enquiry drops dramatically.

It doesn’t mean you need to be glued to your phone 24/7. However, it does mean you need a system – an effective and reliant process. Something that ensures no lead slips through the cracks just because you are onsite, out of range or off duty.

Automation is about buying yourself time to respond properly, without leaving potential customers in the dark.

Where leads are getting lost

Consider for a moment how many channels your customers can use to get in touch. It might be email, text message, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, your website, Google or even third-party platforms.

Individually, each channel makes sense. However, together, they can create a fragmented experience – both for you and your customers. Without a clear and centralised way to manage enquiries, it’s easy for conversations to be missed, delayed or duplicated. It also adds pressure to keep on top of everything, while still delivering your core service.

Creating a single, streamlined system for managing incoming enquiries doesn’t just reduce stress, it also improves your responsiveness, professionalism and conversion. It gives you back control.

Your lead response process is your first impression

Many sole traders assume the sales process begins with a quote. It begins the moment a potential customer reaches out. The way you respond, including how promptly, how clearly and how confidently – shapes the customer’s first impression of your business.

If someone has to follow up just to receive basic information or clarification, confidence in your reliability may quickly erode. Even if your work is exceptional, that early hesitation may linger.

You don’t need to be available around the clock. But being timely, consistent and professional in your initial response goes a long way in building trust from the outset.

Handling enquiries well is a quiet but powerful driver of growth, one that often goes unnoticed until opportunities start slipping through.

If you are looking for a practical way to strengthen your business this month, start by reviewing how enquiries are received, how quickly you are responding and where follow-up might be falling short.

Chances are, your next great customer may have already reached out. The key is making sure they hear back.

Contributed by Elise Balsillie, Head of Thryv Australia and New Zealand

Aussie businesses will pour profits into people, marketing and the workplace over the next 12 months, with fresh data revealing a pivot back to the office and tight profit margins is steering a trend towards lower cost, high-impact non-capital spending.

Marketing, training, tech and even office furniture will take priority for businesses in 2025-26, with a national survey by business loan comparison platform Small Business Loans Australia (SBLA) showing 91 per cent of businesses plan to make non-capital investments to drive immediate efficiency, sales and growth without taking on significant financial risk. 

The figures follow data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that show private capital expenditure fell by 0.1% in the March quarter of 2025 – driven by a 1.3% fall in plant and machinery investment – and is now 0.5% lower than in March 2024.[1] While some sectors seem to be pulling back, businesses overall are forecasting a still-healthy $155.9 billion[2] in capital investment this financial year.

To ascertain which types of capital businesses are investing in this financial year, and what internal and external drivers influence their capital investment decisions SBLA commissioned an independent, nationally representative panel of 200 business owners and decision-makers.

In terms of capital investments, the most popular suggest that a significant proportion of businesses will invest in the more immediate needs of their businesses, such as operational efficiency and ending work-from-home arrangements. These investments are technology and IT hardware (38% of businesses), followed by office furniture and fittings (28%), the latter suggesting office enhancements to bring workers back. A smaller proportion plan to spend on machinery and equipment (22%) and motor vehicles (13%), larger-ticket items that need more financing or longer-term certainty. That one in 10 businesses will invest in sustainable assets could be driven by energy efficiency or compliance needs.

The survey additionally found that the most common non-capital investments are new employees (by 31% of businesses) and skilling up employees (35%). Investment in product or service development (23%), marketing and advertising (22%) and customer experience enhancements (16%) show businesses will also invest to grow efficiency and sales.
Small Business Loans Australia also sought to identify the internal roadblocks that would prevent businesses from committing to capital investment. Narrow financial constraints are the biggest barrier, with tight profit margins (43%), insufficient cash flow (26%) and prioritising debt repayments (17%) likely to impact businesses.

The macro-level or environmental forces that most influence business capital investment are high energy costs (30%), rising interest rates (24%) and economic uncertainty (22%), all of which are real issues in the current economic environment. 

Alon Rajic, founder of Small Business Loans Australia, says: “Business owners are making hard decisions about where to allocate limited funds – and our research shows there is a clear preference for investment that drives efficiency, customer acquisition and workforce capability. While they might not be prioritising big-ticket capital purchases at last year’s levels, many businesses are still planning to invest in growth.

“Our research also revealed that the decision to invest in capital and the willingness to take risks is sensitive to internal and external pressures, the biggest being financial: limited finances, inflation and high interest rates. 

“The good news is that businesses aren’t necessarily slowing down – they’re choosing those investments that have faster returns and lower risk. Businesses are making more selective and considered decisions about how they’ll grow this financial year.”

The full Small Business Loans Australia FY26 capital investment study can be found here.