Oracle and AI - Wherever You Need it

 

Oracle’s AI strategy is not one product, one platform, or one deployment model — it is an ecosystem approach.

As AI has developed I have spoken many times at events in the user community, about what has been added or changed, especially with the Oracle Applications.

What hasn't changed is my definition of Oracle's AI strategy. They empower you to use AI wherever you are.

This matters because none of us are starting our AI journey with a blank sheet of paper,  and we need to ensure the AI we adopt, is not jeopardising what we already have. 

Embedded AI

Within their modern Fusion Applications, the AI is embedded, secured and maintained within a process.

If you want to build your own Agents or Applications this is enabled through delivered tools.

If you like their agent but want to bring your own, or different AI model you can. Yes there are some costing considerations but it is enabled.

I concentrate on the Fusion Applications but AI is also embedded in other modern offerings such as EPM, Analytics and Integration Cloud.

AI services available through OCI

For their Apps Unlimited customers which do not have the architecture as is for AI, you can add AI services from the Oracle Infrastructure Cloud, OCI. Ask EBS is an example of this.  A common myth is that to do this you need to be running your apps unlimited on OCI, you don't. 

Those AI services are not just for Apps Unlimited, they can be used with any application. Inoapps have added AI select to our award winning archiving system and other internal systems.

You can also OCI for running other AI models which is what Inoapps have done for iASK.

OCI infrastructure for building and running AI model

Oracle's biggest success with AI is to enable the AI giants, providing the Infrastructure for those organisations to build and run their models. 

The conversations I have with organisations, is about the business challenges AI can help with, and they are not neatly sat in one area waiting for new technology. So the choice of what and how you use AI gives a much better chance of a solution. By adopting this strategy Oracle have been able to concentrate on the governance and security around the enablement.

AI is developing fast but my simple statement of Oracle enabling the use of AI wherever you are, still stands.

On Stage at Oracle - My Journey Through The Years

 

My First Oracle Annual Event, then called Oracle Open World was 2004, I have attended every event since, and spoken in some way at every one of them from 2005. 

In those early days there was a whole day of user group sessions, so it was a wee bit easier to get a session selected. As an ACE Director I have spoken with several Oracle Product Development Teams, some sessions where my employer was a sponsor and more importantly to me, where I have had the privilege to talk with end user organizations I have worked with.

This year I am speaking as a customer! Inoapps use Fusion for Finance and HR and I will be with Mastercard talking about their virtual payment offering and why Inoapps, their first Oracle customer, use this.

As I move towards retirement, I thought it would be quite fun to list my sessions like a rock band tour, I don't have details for the first few years as I didn't have a blog then.

2026 

B2B Payments: Embedded Approach to Operational Efficiency and Working Capital

2025 

'Modernizing EBS'

2024 

'Applications Unlimited Customers—Put an End to Cloud Confusion'

2023 

'Extending Oracle Fusion Cloud Apps—What We Learned'

'An Introduction to Extending Oracle Fusion Cloud Apps'

'Applications Unlimited Customers—Put an End to Cloud Confusion'

2022  

'My Contractor, a showcase of Oracle ME (My Experience)'

2021 / 2020

No Annual Event (Covid)

2019 

'Should I Move to Oracle Cloud Applications' 

2018

'A chatbot working with HCM'  

'SOA Cloud session based on a Skanska HCM implementation'

2017

'Delivering People Excellence for DHL'

2016 

#PaaS4SaaS

'Digital Transformation in Sport The England Rugby Fusion Story'

2015 

'Forming Your Future: Upgrade/Migration to Oracle Fusion Applications'

'What Does It Take to Make Oracle HCM Cloud Work? The JT Story'

2014   

'Technology assisted deployments and upgrades'

'First Time UX experience'

2013 

'The Fusion Decision Journey'

2012

'Usability and Features of Oracle Fusion Applications, Built upon Oracle Fusion Middleware'

'How Fujitsu Built Its Oracle Cloud for Its Customers'

'Consolidation: Optimize Your Entire Oracle Investment as a Platform for Growth'

'Oracle’s Roadmap to a Simple, Modern User Experience' 

'Consolidation for the Cloud'

2011 

'Your Path to Understanding Fusion Applications'

'Do I Upgrade or go straight to Oracle Fusion Applications?'

'Consolidation to the Cloud'

2010 

‘Fusion MiddleWare for Business – Stay Away if you are Technical’

'42 Real Life Examples of Fusion Middleware’

‘What to Look For in A Systems Integrator’

2009  

  'Shared-Service Oracle E-Business Suite 12' 

'Oracle Business Intelligence Applications, and SOA' 

 'Applications Upgrade Planning Tool'

2008  

  'Extended the E Business Suite with Hyperion' 

      '10 Things you can do to prepare for Fusion Now' 

Travle Blog Ascend & Kscope

 This blog post is just for me really. 

Several years ago I applied for Global Entry into the US and one of the questions was - which countries have you visited in the last 10 years? This Oracle blog, my dive log and stored photos was the only way I could attempt to complete the question. Luckily at the interview they didn't ask me to recite them, just asked me why I had entered a random selection of my answers.

So I need a travelog post for Ascend and Kscope 2026.

Ascend was partially funded by the ACE Program as I am an ACE ~Director and I am always so grateful for their continued support. This is my 18th year on the program.

I had a couple of sessions and wrote about my findings across the two events in two posts, one on EBS and one on Fusion.

It was good as aways to catch up with people and hear what others are doing as this is how I learn.

Ascend was in Orlando, Florida but I didn't have time to enjoy the sunshine as I had to fly straight out to Denver for Kscope and ODTUG board meetings.

Big Foot

The board meeting on the Friday was all day and we still didn't get everything covered. But all too soon it was time for Kscope and a big thankyou to Sara Beth Good our KEO who delivered an amazing event. 

Again I got to see any friends and made some more - Big Foot was a bit creepy until I learnt it was Roel Hartman my fellow board member. 

Saturday at Kscope traditionally was community service day sponsored by Dodeca and it was good to have it back. We went to a city farm that does so much amazing work and helped to weed the area. Tim Tow from Dodcca was the big star on the day. That man can dig like a machine.

I didn't have a normal session at Kscope but I did do my Introduction to Oracle session and one for volunteers. Then as I covered in my 2nd blog Dr Abi and I did a downhill for our communities.

The party was at Empower Field, home of the Denver Broncos, and our lifetime achievement winner Karen Cannell showed us why she is every bit ODTUG personified.

The event finished at lunchtime on the last day and Abi and I had a lazy afternoon in the sun before our long flight home.

Fusion Thoughts from Ascend and Kscope Conferences

Still catching up.

Ascend and Kscope confirmed for me that Fusion adoption is increasingly shaped by the technology ecosystem around it, particularly OCI, AI, analytics, integration, and the technical skills needed to support change.

 

At Ascend conference I was speaking in the EBS stream, which I blogged about earlier in the week.

There was a lot of HCM content for Fusion but not as much across the entire suite as I hoped for and possibly because this is my area expertise, I didn't attend many Fusion sessions but did talk to lots of users which teaches me far more.

I was on the panel for the AI Special Interest Group meeting, and it was good to see that organizations are dipping their toes into AI Agents and have embraced at least some of the Generative AI delivered in Fusion.

I also had the chance to talk about AI in Fusion with Connor MacDonald in an Uber which he shared online.

I am really interested in the technology that underpins our applications and I believe that the technical people in an organization that runs Fusion also have the same thirst for knowledge. For those reasons I have been a longtime supporter of ODTUG.

We talk about Fusion being sold to the business rather than IT but that doesn't mean the IT team have no role during the implementation. It's incredibly important that they are working with the integration, with the data migration and understanding how they move from where they are today which undoubtedly will have been an on premise and highly maintained by their team.  

It may be that SaaS once implemented requires less intervention but in the sales cycle I know that just natural curiosity means these teams want to know what's going on in Fusion and whilst they can't go under the covers to the application database, there is still the integration, the way it works with the rest of their estate, and how data is used before and after the application processes to worry about. Technology is still very important to this community. 

I have been on the board of ODTUG for 4 years and campaigned for an OCI community because I believe that that's where that technology lives and I was so happy when ODTUG launched OCI last year.

At the Kscope conference this year we had our first OCI tracks. I was very impressed at the number of technical people who were Fusion users, some were our traditional APEX or Visual Builder developers who are extending Fusion, some from our Analytics community who are using FDI or EPM practitioners who are running it with Fusion and some were net new people who were just coming for the OCI angle. 

Some new attendees were also E Business Suite, (EBS) admins assessing what a move to Fusion technically involved.

Feedback we got was they wanted more FDI content. We did had several amazing sessions that explained how AI works and how AI is exposed in Oracle, in OCI, in the applications, in EPM, in Analytics and in Integrations. The presentations really appealed to me as a Fusion practitioner who loves the technology.

What I learnt from the sessions I attended and some of the things that resonated with me in the conversations match what I see with our customers. 

For a while most financial users of Fusion have purchased the EPM modules at the same time and there is talk that that link between them will become even tighter.

One presentation I attended talked about implementing FDI at the same time as Fusion and not as a later phase, and especially when an organization is using Finance and Supply Chain, the value of having the analytics from day one drives even better adoption.

One session addressed the AI everywhere in Fusion and partners are delivering agents at pace. But how do organizations know where to start? At Inoapps, we are working with our customers, helping them choose the delivered AI Agents that are relevant for them from Oracle’s portfolio or from the marketplace of partner agents and then what ones do they need to alter or build themselves. Advice I give and echoed by every speaker at Kscope is start small, don't try and produce a massive list to tackle, look at the ones that make sense. 

As the board liaison for the OCI Community I also held a town hall jointly with Abi Giles-Haigh who is responsible for the AI Community and we looked at some common threads, starting with skills and the need to stay current.

A significant number of our audience were using or thinking of using Fusion and this validates having the OCI Community and I look forward to growing that in the future under the leadership of Roger Cressey.

Retirements are not a bad thing

 

I read on LinkedIn over the weekend that Steve Miranda had retired from Oracle. It wasn't news to me, I heard a rumour a few weeks ago, reached out to Steve and he confirmed it, although there had been no official announcement.

I have worked with Steve since he took on the challenge to build Fusion Apps. I was representing user groups world wide and Steve met regularly with us to share insights and progress. When Fusion was released I had the honour to introduce his Apps keynote at Oracle Open World.

Steve Miranda, OOW 2010

I'll miss Steve it has always been a great supporter but Chris Leone is now leading Applications and I am excited by that. Chris has been the leader in the AI adoption for oracle and I look forward to see that across all pillars. Working with Chris is always exciting.

Nadia, Cliff and I, Dubai 2009

Another recent retirement is Cliff Godwin who looked after EBS development. I have known Cliff most of my Oracle ecosystem career and my favourite memory is at an event in Dubai along with Nadia Bendjedou.

As I mentioned in my EBS updates from Ascend blog, Lisa Parekh will now lead EBS Development and I look forward to working with her.

Retirement is something to be celebrated and I still can't decide when to pull the plug on my career, I'm thinking about it, but still loving my job!

E Business Suite Messages from Ascend, June 2026

 New EBS development lead

Last year at AI World Inoapps sponsored a round table for EBS customers. Cliff Godwin was asked what happens to the community when he leaves and his answer was that he had a great team behind him that would step up. Since then, Cliff has retired and Lisa Parekh, who has been in that development team for longer than Cliff, has taken on the role of head of development. At Ascend, Nadia, who isn't in Development but Product Strategy, introduced Lisa to the community present at Lisa's keynote.

Lisa and Nadia at Ascend

Still no end in sight for EBS

The session started as ever with Oracle’s commitment to E-Business Suite.  I think most customers now understand that support is rolling, but Lisa added the nuance that when the time comes there will be 10 years’ notice, and that notice period has not yet started.

What’s new in EBS documentation?

In the latest release 12.2.15, there are again many new features, but what appealed to me was the What's New approach to the documentation led by Jeanne Lowell. This is similar to what we have in Fusion applications, which is searchable with your favorite search engine and its embedded AI. 

Currently 12.2.15 is in this new format and they have rewritten 12.2.14 and 12.2.13 the same way and are working on other versions in reverse order. Check them out. This is such an easy way of looking at what has been released—and remember there may be value for you in the intermediate releases, not just the last release.

Technology changes

EBS is about to have a technology upgrade, moving Middleware to 14c. Normally the uptake would be slow. Organizations have made big changes to their systems, and an upgrade means a lot of testing. However, this changes will mean technology and application are separated and the tech stack upgrade will be independent of the application.

This is currently in beta testing with a few customers, but you can follow the progress and understand the process by following Elke Phelps series on their EBS Technology blog.

Hosting of EBS

Often an upgrade has an impact on your hardware, and this is just one of the reasons customers move to a cloud hosting solution for EBS. Oracle state that over half of EBS customers are on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

Renewed interest in ECC

Enterprise Command Centers again has lots of new features and I am seeing a renewed interest in ECC. Some organizations who tried it in its early days and didn't feel it gave them enough additional value are looking again. The Oracle demos of ECC are showing much more functionality. My own point of view has been that many customers believe that they have solved these problems with their investment in 3rd party tools, but ECC is aimed at operational intelligence and there is so much they offer.

AI: Ask EBS

Part of the reason for the renewed interest in ECC is that this is the architecture of the data being used as the base for Ask EBS—the AI that’s been documented for the community. 

Just a reminder, as I see this as a myth: you do not need to implement or have ECC in order to use AI. It just uses the same views and you just run that part of the process to give you the basis for the AI.

Oracle does not deliver the AI or Ask EBS as a patch. There is a white paper see: Enabling Natural Language Query of Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) Release 12.2, Leveraging Oracle Generative AI (MOS Article KB859326, Formerly MOS Note 3059877.1 ). This explains how you build it and includes all the steps. 

Each time this is presented, there is a caution given that you must, when starting your project, redownload the document as it is a living document and the one that you looked at a few weeks ago may not be the current version. At Ascend, two big changes were highlighted: previously you needed an autonomous version of the database and this is no longer true as you can use the 26 AI without autonomous. The second change is you can use your own favorite LLM.

Built on AI; made easier?

In my sessions and when I talk about Ask EBS, I finished by asking "is AI the tipping point for customers to move to Fusion?". The reasoning behind this is that you have to build the AI for any data source that is not an Oracle Cloud product. So for Apps Unlimited, you need to build the AI solution. 

Oracle Ask EBS is doing that using the Select AI Service that allows you to ask natural language queries and get a response from your EBS system. My belief is that for each challenge you have for each requirement, you are going to have to build the AI solution. I explained that getting information from the EBS database that has always been an issue since the beginning of time. 

In the Oracle ecosystem these difficulties or challenges are addressed by third party organizations—partners who build a solution that can be bolted on to your EBS. As with any applications conference, Ascend had a significant number of these third parties who are very successful in providing solutions to their community. I've always said that these ISV's see a gap and then bridge it, and it may be short term until Oracle catches up or it may be longer term. 

There are many very successful partners in this area, and at Ascend there were partners adding to their portfolio, and others dipping their toes into the market and coming up with solutions for AI in EBS.  My own employer, Inoapps, recently announced the acquisition of JDE partner KS2 who have built some incredible solutions for AI within JD Edwards—so this model of partners filling the gaps is natural. Expect more on AI for Apps Unlimited at AI World in October.

Modernizing is more than just AI

Most people are talking about Generative or agentic AI, but classic AI is also modernizing EBS, and I am seeing a lot going on here, from automation to document imaging. APEX is also an excellent tool for modernizing your EBS, alongside integrations through OCI, mobile web applications. 

Conclusion

EBS is certainly not dead, and the organizations using it are not standing still. They are moving forward at their pace in all areas.

Thank You UKOUG

Honoured to be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by UK Oracle User Group. I am on holiday so was not there in person but did send a video.

UKOUG has given me the opportunity to benefit from the Oracle community and volunteering was only natural.

I have won several awards from different organisations over the years but this rounds of a great career with Oracle technology.

Thank you to all who have supported me over the years.