Discover how Cisco is moving beyond traditional AIOps to autonomous network management powered by reasoning AI agents that can think, plan, and act independently.
In this exclusive interview from Cisco Live EMEA, Anurag Dhingra, SVP and GM for Enterprise Connectivity and Collaboration, reveals the technical details and strategic vision behind Cisco’s agentic AI revolution. We stay away from hype, and take a deep dive into production systems that are already transforming how enterprises manage their networks.
What makes this conversation essential worth viewing? Dhingra goes into the actual architecture, from MCP servers at the controller layer to the mixture of frontier and custom-trained models that power autonomous agents. You’ll learn how Cisco is codifying 40 years of networking expertise into systems that can troubleshoot problems before humans even notice them.
What you’ll discover in this video
The interview unpacks the critical difference between yesterday’s AIOps and today’s agentic ops. It reveals why reasoning models change everything about network management. Dhingra discusses AI Canvas, a system that generates dashboards on the fly using generative UX. That means no more static views that never show exactly what you need.
But perhaps most intriguing is the honest discussion about challenges. How much does AI inferencing actually cost? How do you build customer trust when agents can act autonomously? What happens to the role of network administrators when AI can handle routine troubleshooting? Dhingra addresses these questions with specific technical and strategic answers.
Key topics explored
- The evolution from AIOps to agentic ops and what reasoning models enable
- How AI Canvas orchestrates specialized agents across domains
- Technical architecture: where MCP servers run and why it matters
- Real results: how wireless networks self-optimize with AI agents
- Cost management strategies for AI inferencing at scale
- Building trust through transparency, AI Defense, and human-in-the-loop workflows
- The future vision of orchestrator agents coordinating specialized agents
- Why customer adoption is lagging and what Cisco is doing about it
Why this matters now
This isn’t vaporware or future vision. Cisco’s AI Assistant has been in production for some time already. AI Canvas is in early access with customers reporting measurable improvements. The technology is real, the results are quantifiable, and the implications for enterprise IT operations are potentially profound.
Whether you’re responsible for network operations, evaluating AI strategies for your organization, or simply trying to understand where enterprise AI is heading beyond chatbots and copilots, this conversation provides insights into production systems that could reshape a core enterprise function.
Watch the full interview to understand what Cisco is building, and why agentic AI represents a fundamental shift in how enterprises will manage complex infrastructure in the years ahead.