The Rundown: Cisco sees AI agents as a digital workforce that absorbs routine tasks (like outages), enabling teams to focus on the complex strategic work — and what comes next. The key takeaway for companies? Mastering human-agent collaboration.

Posted on February 22, 2026 by michelleclarke2015
 The rise of a new agentic workforce
The Rundown: Cisco sees AI agents as a digital workforce that absorbs routine tasks (like outages), enabling teams to focus on the complex strategic work — and what comes next. The key takeaway for companies? Mastering human-agent collaboration.
Cheung: Cisco has said AI will make the world feel like it has “80B people.” What does that mean inside a company? And how far can AI go in network ops?
Sampath: For the first time, we’re deploying digital teammates that can plan, reason, and execute with autonomy. Every leader will manage a constellation of agents working in parallel — investigating, analyzing, remediating — while humans move up the stack to creativity, judgment, and strategic direction.
Within 12 months, I expect AI to resolve roughly 80% of pattern-based, routine network incidents autonomously. The final 20%, which are multi-vendor, legacy-heavy, or edge-case complexities, will take longer. But just like self-driving, progress will compound.
Sampath added: Over the next five years, the companies that learn to design for human–agent collaboration, with trust, governance, and intent at the core, will define the next era of operational performance.
Why it matters: Humans won’t be replaced by AI, but they will be pushed up the stack. As agents absorb the predictable and procedural, the premium will shift to judgment, creativity, and strategic thinking. The winning edge for businesses will come from pairing that human depth with agents’ speed and scale.
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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