PeopleSoft Investment and Innovation Update 2026
Oracle’s PeopleSoft NOW! 2026 Executive Summary offers a clear picture of where the platform is headed. Rather than a single headline feature, it points to steady investment across five areas: user experience, AI enablement, security, customization management, and infrastructure modernization.
Taken together, these investments show a platform that is being actively developed, not simply maintained. Here is a closer look at each area and what it means for organizations running PeopleSoft.
A more personalized user experience
PeopleSoft continues to evolve toward experiences that help users find what they need faster.
At the centre of that effort is the PeopleSoft Landing Page. It provides a more dynamic starting point by bringing tasks, notifications, announcements, and personalized content together in one place. Instead of moving between different areas of the system to see what needs attention, users can begin their work from a single, relevant view.
PeopleTools 8.63 builds on this with additional Landing Page enhancements that expand personalization capabilities. The more closely the starting point reflects each user’s work, the less time they spend navigating to it.
Importantly, these experiences are no longer limited to employees. They are extending to candidates, suppliers, customers, and other external users. For organizations that rely on PeopleSoft to interact with people outside their walls, that means a more consistent and approachable experience for everyone who uses the system.
Smarter search with AI-powered capabilities
Finding information in enterprise applications is becoming more intuitive, and search is a big part of that shift.
Oracle is expanding semantic search capabilities, which help users find information based on what they mean rather than the exact terminology they use. A user doesn’t need to know the precise name of a page or field to get to the right result.
Natural-language search adds to this by reducing reliance on knowing specific navigation paths or transaction names. That matters most for occasional users, who are the least likely to remember where something lives in the system.
Improved typo tolerance rounds out these changes. Small errors in a query no longer have to stand in the way of finding information, which removes one more barrier between users and the answers they need.
Generative AI enablement
Oracle is building the foundation for customers to securely connect PeopleSoft with emerging AI technologies.
A key part of this is the introduction of Model Context Protocol (MCP) capabilities. MCP is intended to provide standardized access to PeopleSoft data and operations while respecting existing security controls. In practical terms, it gives organizations a consistent, governed way to connect AI tools to PeopleSoft rather than building one-off connections for each use case.
Natural-language assistants and configurable chat experiences provide a further foundation. Rather than delivering a fixed solution, they give organizations the building blocks to create AI solutions that fit their own needs.
For technical teams, Application Designer Code Assist can help developers explain PeopleCode, troubleshoot issues, and improve development productivity. This brings AI support directly into the development environment where PeopleSoft teams already work.
Better visibility into customizations
Managing customizations remains a major challenge for enterprise application teams. Over time, modifications build up, and it becomes harder to know which ones still matter.
Customization Insights helps address this by showing organizations which custom objects are actively used and which are affected by updates. That information is valuable when planning upgrades, since it helps teams focus their testing and effort where it counts.
PeopleTools 8.63 adds customization groups, which allow modifications to be organized by owner, business area, or purpose. This gives teams a clearer structure for understanding their custom landscape.
With greater visibility, teams can reduce technical debt and make smarter decisions about future enhancements, including which customizations to keep, simplify, or retire.
Strengthening security controls
Security continues to be a key focus within the PeopleTools roadmap.
Oracle is enhancing authentication options, including SAML single sign-on and Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP) support. TOTP provides additional options for multi-factor authentication, giving organizations more ways to verify users before granting access.
Because these capabilities are delivered within PeopleTools, they help strengthen access controls while reducing reliance on custom security solutions. That means less custom code to maintain and fewer gaps to manage over time.
Simplifying lifecycle management
Oracle is also investing in tools that make PeopleSoft environments easier to operate and maintain.
Containerized PeopleSoft Update Manager images are designed to make update infrastructure more portable and repeatable. Continued investment in PeopleSoft Cloud Manager and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure supports automation of provisioning, patching, backups, and environment management.
The combined effect is simpler environment management, greater consistency, and less effort required to provision and maintain PeopleSoft environments. For technical teams, that translates into more time available for work that adds value to the business.
Modernizing on your own timeline
Across all five areas, the direction is consistent: make PeopleSoft easier to use, easier to secure, easier to manage, and ready to connect with AI.
Oracle’s continued investment allows organizations to modernize and enhance their existing PeopleSoft environments while defining their long-term ERP strategy on their own timeline.