Compare / NetSuite Next and Ask Oracle
NetSuite Next puts Ask Oracle and embedded AI inside the ERP. Erstan is a separate workspace where agents you can open and edit run recurring finance work across NetSuite, email and Slack. Plenty of teams will use both.
ErstanEvery agent is built from a trigger, steps, instructions, skills and tools that you can read and change in the Agent Builder.
NetSuite NextAsk Oracle’s skills and the embedded features are built and maintained by Oracle. Oracle announced SuiteAgent frameworks for custom agents in October 2025.
ErstanChoose from Erstan’s curated model catalog, with managed access or your own provider API key, or let Auto pick within limits you set.
NetSuite NextOracle chooses the models behind its built-in features. Customers cannot bring their own model for them.
ErstanConnects to a production or sandbox account through the Erstan bundle or your own OAuth setup. Choose Pro or Team to get started, or talk to us about Enterprise.
NetSuite NextNetSuite Next and Ask Oracle began rolling out with release 2026.2 to customers in the United States and Canada, with other countries to follow.
ErstanOne run can read an invoice from an inbox, check it against NetSuite, build a workbook and post the result to Slack.
NetSuite NextBuilt to work inside the NetSuite interface, under NetSuite roles and permissions.
ErstanAgents start from a schedule, an inbound email, a webhook or a form, as well as chat.
NetSuite NextThe documented way to start an agent is from Ask Oracle or from a NetSuite page.
ErstanEvery run becomes a task that moves through Queued, In Progress, Needs Review and Complete, where a teammate can pick it up.
NetSuite NextAI Canvas is NetSuite Next’s shared workspace for analysis inside NetSuite.
| Erstan | NetSuite Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it lives | ||
| Runs | In Erstan, connected to NetSuite | Inside NetSuite |
| Availability | Beta, by request | US and Canada first, phased |
| No second vendor or integration to manage | ||
| AI embedded in NetSuite pages and fields | ||
| What it does | ||
| Answers questions on live NetSuite data | ||
| Finance skills included | ||
| Agents you can edit step by step | ||
| Starts from schedule, email, webhook or form | Not documented | |
| Acts in Slack and email | Not documented | |
| Control | ||
| Respects NetSuite roles and permissions | ||
| Approval before changes | ||
| Choice of model provider | ||
| Price | ||
| Price | From A$299 per month | Included, metered in AI Units |
means partly, or with extra setup. Last checked October 2026 against each vendor’s public documentation. Products change; tell us if a row is out of date.
Inside or alongside
Embedded features such as transaction matching, flux analysis and Text Enhance improve the screen you are already on. Erstan agents take a whole job, such as invoice intake or a collections run, from trigger to review without anyone opening a record first.
Open agents
An Erstan agent is a document you own: its trigger, its steps, the skills it loads and the tools it may call. When your process differs from the template, you edit the agent and publish a new version.
Both
Erstan reads and writes through NetSuite’s own MCP tools, under your role. Nothing about running Erstan stops you from adopting Ask Oracle when it reaches your account.
Oracle says the rollout starts with customers in the United States and Canada, with other countries to follow. Check Oracle’s announcement for the current list.
No. Erstan connects to your existing account through the Erstan bundle or your own OAuth setup, and works through NetSuite’s MCP tools.
Yes. They work at different levels: Oracle’s AI inside the NetSuite interface, Erstan’s agents running jobs alongside it.
Yes. Oracle says users stay in control at every step. In Erstan, tools that can write start at Require approval, and the decision is recorded in the approvals ledger.
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