In this episode from Cisco Live, Maribel Lopez sits down with two Cisco executives, Vijoy Pandey, SVP of Outshift at Cisco and Nathan Jokel, SVP of Corporate Strategy and Alliances at Cisco, to discuss how AI is fundamentally changing enterprise infrastructure over the next year. The conversation explores the evolution from deterministic to probabilistic computing, the emergence of agentic workflows, and practical advice for business leaders navigating the AI transformation.

Host: Maribel Lopez
Guests:

• Vijoy Pandey, SVP of Outshift at Cisco
• Nathan Jokel, SVP of Corporate Strategy and Alliances at Cisco

Recorded at: Cisco Live

Episode Overview

In this episode from Cisco Live, Maribel Lopez sits down with two Cisco executives to discuss how AI is fundamentally changing enterprise infrastructure over the next year. The conversation explores the evolution from deterministic to probabilistic computing, the emergence of agentic workflows, and practical advice for business leaders navigating the AI transformation.

Key Topics Discussed

The Three Waves of AI Infrastructure Evolution

• Wave 1: AI training in public cloud (mostly behind us)
• Wave 2: AI inference moving to enterprise data centers for control, security, and economic reasons
• Wave 3: AI moving to the edge with physical and embodied AI requiring new infrastructure for robots and devices

From Deterministic to Probabilistic Computing

Vijoy explains the fundamental shift happening in computing:

• Traditional computing: deterministic, machine-speed but limited
• Human intelligence: agentic but slow
• New paradigm: AI agents with human-like behavior operating at machine speed and scale

The Internet of Agents

A collaboration platform where AI agents from different vendors can:

• Get discovered and authenticated
• Compose workflows together
• Execute tasks collaboratively
• Be evaluated for performance

Real-world example: Building a sales funnel portal using agentic interfaces from Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft, and Cisco security - all working together without manual UI clicking.

AI and Energy Challenges

• The Problem: By 2028, projected 63 gigawatt shortfall for new data center capacity
• Solutions:
  • Invest in diverse energy sources (nuclear, renewables, battery storage)
  • Build data centers near power sources (e.g., Cisco's Middle East partnerships)
  • Develop more energy-efficient infrastructure
  • Focus on smaller, specialized models instead of racing for maximum parameters

Cisco's Specialized AI Models

• Foundation SAC 8B: 8 billion parameter model specialized for security policy
• Deep Network Model: Expert model trained on network configurations

Outshift: Cisco's Innovation Engine

Cisco's internal incubator tackling problems adjacent to core business in:

• Space: Areas adjacent to networking, security, observability, collaboration
• Time/Risk: Higher-risk ventures that can't enter at Cisco scale initiallyCurrent Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs):

1. Internet of Agents
2. Quantum Internet - building quantum networks for distributed quantum computing