Oracle NetSuite ANZ GM Channel and Ecosystem on SaaSpocalypse and AI

Tony Field also tells CRN Australia why organisations can’t bet their “whole business” on AI.

A few weeks ago, Oracle’s co-CEO Mike Sicilia dismissed concerns around the ‘SaaSpocalyse’ impacting the tech giant, and closer to home, the GM channel and ecosystems for Oracle Netsuite, echoes the same sentiments.

Speaking to CRN Australia at Oracle NetSuite SuiteConnect 2026, Tony Field, the general manager of channel and ecosystems, ANZ he said about SaaSpocalypse, “I don't think that's going to really impact us too much, to be honest.”

As NetSuite showcased a suite of new AI offerings in its NetSuite Next ERP product, Field explained that the company’s partners are developing and innovating around AI agents.

The SaaSpocalypse refers to the major disruption brought by AI agents that could make software solution providers obsolete.

Field told CRN he hadn’t seen any concern from partners around the SaaSpocalypse. He noted the partners that will succeed and avoid any impact will be the ones building an agency verticalisation.

“[Look at] NetSuite Next, and what we're doing around that. [There is] huge opportunity for customer adoption, around that, when that becomes available, so they're still positive about the opportunities,” he noted.

The message Field wants his partners to understand around the SaaSpocalypse is “build something and accelerate its development”.

"We're seeing our partners focusing on one or two specific niche industries. Not necessarily a niche, which is one or two industries that's going to be critical in their success,” he said.

“You can't just be a generalist going forward. You have to have vertical expertise and partners who build out agents on top of what we're already doing in a vertical industry environment. They're the ones that got to be successful in the future.”

Betting on AI

While AI is becoming the central focus for many customers and partners, Field said, “You can't go and bet your whole business on AI today.”

“If we're still focused on solving customers business problems, we're going to be successful and the partner is going to be successful,” he explained.

“We can talk about fancy things around AI which could mitigate some of that risk. But we're not just there yet, there's still fundamental problems that need to be solved.

“There's too much risk, there's the governance and everything.”

Field said this isn’t a drum they need to keep beating to partners as they understand too.

“They know that for the next 12 months, two years, it's still going to be business as usual,” he said.

“I don't see any of our partners just banging on, trying to push AI. It's still more education, and that's what we've been doing with working with our associations.”

Pressure from the boards

Field is noticing more boards putting pressure on customers asking for more use of AI.

“The challenge our partners faced with is translating that, or some of that, to an ROI the board understands. So very difficult to quantify that why for that type of use case,” he said.

“But then when you look at taking that a step further and looking at what they can do around, things like close management, faster close or exception reporting, they're focused now on trying to measure that so that they can report back to the board, AI has a measurable impact.:

Field has seen some of his more “advanced partners” focusing on AI and building out agents.

“They’ve built out as an orchestration platform. Now they're testing it in some of their customers, and now they're quantifying those savings that can be positioned back to the board,” he said

Field noted that most people are struggling with AI implementation at the moment.

“Because it's still new, we don't have enough people out there using these different things in a in a true business environment,” he explained.

“There's that whole the risk associated with it, the governance that's still all being formulated.”

Opportunities for partners

Field identified three opportunities for Oracle NetSuite partners, the first is existing ERP modernisation projects.

“Putting AI to one side for a minute, there's still enormous opportunity out there, with customers still trying to solve the same problems around faster close rates, days outstanding,” he said.

Another is partners owning the relationship post-implementation

“That leads into AI, in terms of adoption of AI going forward,” he added.

Finally, Field sees an opportunity around the development of agentic agents.

"We've got a number of partners who are building that out now as well,” he said.