- Cisco report finds that 80% of executives see agent AI as critical to business success by 2027
- AI Isn’t Losing Jobs, They’re Just Going Through Big Changes
- 55% will work with AI agents, 60% of the workforce must be trained
New data from a joint report from Cisco and Omdia states that four in five executives believe their company’s survival could depend on agent AI as early as 2027, and more than half (55%) of the workforce is expected to collaborate with AI agents in the next two years.
But while business leaders recognize the potential of AI, many have yet to lay the right foundation to truly benefit from it, and legacy infrastructure is proving to be one of the biggest obstacles.
Cisco says more robust, secure and agile networks are needed to support AI tools and agents working across various infrastructures, including applications, clouds and data..
Agent AI is almost here at scale
Senior Vice President of Portfolio Strategy Jeff Schultz described agent AI as the “catalyst of the most significant workforce transformation in a generation,” emphasizing “transformation.” Because the report details how the impact of AI on the workforce is moving from eliminating jobs to evolving employment, which is, after all, good news for humans.
Nearly two in three (65%) expect new job categories to emerge in the next three to five years, and many have not yet appointed chief AI officers to the C-suite level.
But it’s not free: three in five employees will need to upskill “to go beyond rapid engineering and learn to monitor, audit and trust autonomous agents.” Schultz described this change as “technological” and “cultural.”
The report adds that agent AI now represents more than a third (37%) of early adopter technology budgets, with 43% already reporting a significant return on investment and 39% expecting returns within just a year.
“How technology leaders respond today will determine the relative success of their organizations tomorrow,” Schultz concluded, noting that companies’ first steps should be to establish the right infrastructure and foundation layers before blindly betting on AI.
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