Cisco Introduces Agentic AI to Industrial AIoT

Last week, in advance of CiscoLive, I had the privilege of talking with Vikas Butaney, SVP/GM, Secure WAN and Industrial IoT, and Samuel Pasquier, VP, product management, Cisco IIoT Networking. It was a timely conversation; today, Cisco is announcing a massive revamping of those product lines to take advantage of agentic AI.  This includes a cohesive management approach that unifies systems that have previously been managed separately. However, the important item is the new architecture strategy that enables the use of AI.

As Butaney pointed out, the goal at Cisco is to make management of systems easier, particularly for OT, with a focus on operational issues and not on the networks connecting the devices. But OT systems are critical for maintaining production, so enabling analysis is essential and, with AI, easier to view.

In effect, the change is pretty simple and consists of three layers. The first layer is the devices themselves, but the second layer extracts the brains of the management from the network, enabling clustering of network elements into groups based on applications and affiliation. This means that devices that are part of the same function or process can be discovered and managed by the same agent or a cluster of agents to maximize efficiency and to see the processes as a whole.

From an OT perspective, this ability to allow AI to view the network based on processes and functions is critical for agents to comprehend the complete span of control they represent.

This means the entire enterprise product line has gone through a major revamping, including Wi-Fi with Cisco’s URWB (Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul), which is designed to provide high-performance, fiber-like wireless connectivity.

My takeaways are pretty straightforward.

1. Cisco’s revamp of the systems is an important step for AI and a benefit to OT.
2. Enabling AI to cluster devices regardless of what network they are connected to should improve perspective and assist AI agents in their analysis of actionable items.
3. The ability for AI to see a comprehensive view should reduce the surface area and the risk of cyberattacks.

CiscoLive promises to be full of significant announcement and I recommend paying attention to the event.