The future of AI isn't being built in a lab. It's being built in the network. Last week I attended Cisco's AI Infrastructure Executive Advisory Board in Palo Alto. This was an exclusive forum made up of AI infrastructure leaders and visionaries from retail, banking, healthcare, and manufacturing - all grappling with the same challenge: how to operationalize AI at scale. We joined Tom Gillis and Jeremy Foster (among others) from Cisco's leadership team for an honest conversation about what's working, what's not, and where enterprise AI is headed (Hint: it's moving to the edge). Companies are pouring resources into AI applications, but most are building on infrastructure that wasn't designed for what AI demands. Cisco's vision seems to be going beyond faster networks. They're building what they call a "neural spine" — intelligent infrastructure that anticipates demand, reroutes dynamically, and optimizes in real-time - with scalable network and security capabilities built into it from the ground up. Their new AI Canvas platform brings this to life, combining cross-domain telemetry with AI-powered execution across NetOps and SecOps. It's powered by the Cisco Deep Network Model, giving real-time visibility across the entire AI stack. (a prime example of a purpose-built LLM that's highly capable at a limited subset of tasks). The discussion that stayed with me? Sentient operations. When systems start making autonomous decisions on your behalf, how do they earn your trust? (The non-human identity problem). The gap between AI ambition and infrastructure reality is where most enterprise initiatives fail. You can have brilliant AI, but without robust, secure, intelligent infrastructure from data center to edge, you have nothing. The winners in enterprise AI won't be determined by who has the best models. They'll be determined by who built the right foundations first. Thanks to Cisco for including me in this engaging and enlightening discussion, and to all my peers for sharing their stories, insights and vision for the future of AI in the enterprise. Neely Lawton
Thank you for sharing your thoughts Nishant Menon and for being part of the advisory board. You captured perfectly the significance of the network as a foundation for AI. We are cheering you on as you bring this vision to life.
Insightful read this Nishant. So..... succinctly put - Do Androids dream of neural sheeps?
Well stated, Nishant. The network truly is the foundation — ensuring it can support the evolving AI requirements of the business is where our focus needs to be.