AI has joined the workforce. Agents are no longer just answering questions; they are planning tasks, invoking tools, accessing systems, coordinating with other agents, and triggering workflows on behalf of teams. That changes what every workplace has to support. 

Last year, we launched the AI-ready Secure Network Architecture to prepare workplace networks for this shift. A year later, the impact is clear – and the pace is even faster than expected. 

In every workplace environment – from office spaces to hospitals to factory floors – we are seeing accelerated AI adoption. The rise of AI agents, punctuated by the rapid adoption of OpenClaw, has turned AI from a tool people use into digital teammates that do work. 

Across every industry, the human workforce is evolving to people working alongside AI. And this brings me to our starting premise: the very nature of the workforce is changing, so the workplace must change along with it. 

The foundation we laid last year is even more relevant now. Today, the AI-ready Secure Network Architecture takes a giant leap forward. With new innovations, we are dramatically simplifying operations with AgenticOps, deeply fusing security into the network itself, and expanding our lineup of scalable devices ready for the AI era. 

Simplifying operations with AgenticOps

Cisco Cloud Control, entering Controlled Availability for U.S. commercial customers on June 2, 2026, is where AgenticOps comes to life. It brings cross-domain telemetry, purpose-built models, and trusted agents together so operators can move from visibility to action while humans stay in control. 

The need for AgenticOps – humans leveraging agentic AI to manage modern infrastructure – is particularly acute, given the staggering complexity of running modern enterprise environments today. At Cisco Live, we are introducing the Autonomous Agentic Loop: AI agents that are designed to sense degradation, diagnose issues, remediate problems, validate changes, and deploy fixes. The result is closed-loop autonomy that can help free human operators from tedious or error-prone tasks, accelerate time to resolution, and address issues earlier before they become incidents.

As part of this loop, we are introducing exciting new capabilities:

• Network Actions in Cisco Cloud Control, available in beta in June 2026, is mission control for agentic operations, showing incidents, recommendations, reasoning, evidence, confidence score, risk score, and next steps.
• Expanded Experience Metrics, available in beta in June 2026, shifts the view from raw telemetry to user outcomes across wired and wireless environments, with ThousandEyes assurance helping teams detect degraded experience earlier.
• Deep Reasoning, available in beta in June 2026, gives agents and operators a structured investigation experience in AI Assistant and Cisco Cloud Control: competing hypotheses, supporting evidence, impact assessment, root cause, and recommended next steps.
• Digital Twin, available in alpha in July 2026, gives humans and agents a safer way to move fast by emulating devices, connectivity, topology, and configurations so teams can validate changes before production.

The broad-based acceleration of AI adoption has revealed another truth: traditional enterprise applications are themselves adopting AI. These apps already exist in multiple clouds. A front end may run in one cloud, identity may sit somewhere else, and AI inferencing may happen in a third. Now multiply that complexity and add neoclouds to the mix, with users accessing these applications from hundreds or thousands of locations.

Cisco Multicloud Fabric, available in beta in June 2026, is built to simplify that reality. Delivered as a Cisco-operated service and available through Cloud Control, it provides site-to-cloud and cloud-to-cloud connectivity through an instantly available global fabric. Customers access Cisco-operated virtual points of presence across clouds, built-in zero trust routing, service chaining to cloud firewalls, and end-to-end observability with ThousandEyes embedded into the fabric. For customers accelerating AI deployments, Cisco Multicloud Fabric can help reduce operational complexity across a flexible global fabric.

Security fused into the network

In the agentic era, security cannot be an afterthought. The network is always present, so every network device is an enforcement point for centralized policy. Since the network is everywhere, security enforcement can be everywhere too.

That matters because agentic workflows move too quickly for security to wait for a centralized inspection point or a scheduled maintenance window. Protection has to sit closer to where users, devices, applications, and agents actually connect.

At Cisco Live, we are strengthening the secure network architecture with Live Protect on campus and branch Smart Switches, generally available in August 2026, with support for key Secure Routers targeted to follow in February 2027. Live Protect helps security teams adapt to vulnerabilities in this post-Mythos world by applying Cisco-validated protections at runtime where supported.

We are also enhancing infrastructure resilience with Post-Quantum Cryptography for Cisco SD-WAN, generally available in August 2026, building on the post-quantum capabilities we have already shipped: PQC-ready secure boot, data in transit with MACsec, WAN MACsec, and IPsec, and management-plane traffic. Finally, we are announcing Cisco Firewall on Secure Routers, generally available in August 2026. Policy is governed centrally in Cloud Control, with distributed enforcement across Secure Routers.

Scalable devices ready for AI

With the increase in the number of digital teammates, we are also seeing a sharp increase in the volume of traffic across campus and branch networks. To meet this need, we have been refreshing our portfolio of networking devices – a journey we began over a year ago: Smart Switches for campus and branch, Wi-Fi 7 access points for any size space, Secure Routers for reliable, protected internet connectivity, and industrial switching for manufacturing and other ruggedized deployments.

Today, we are expanding this lineup to address even more use cases. The Cisco C9550 Series Fixed Core Smart Switches, orderable as of May 2026, are designed for the demands of the AI era, bringing up to 4 x 400 Gbps uplinks for up to 6.4 Tbps switching capacity and 3.9 billion packets per second. Powered by Cisco Silicon One, these new switches are purpose-built on a secure, adaptable, and scalable foundation for emerging requirements of agentic traffic.

We are also announcing a host of new Secure Routers, headlined by the Cisco 8600 Series Secure Routers, orderable in September 2026, which offer massive scalability, purpose-built for data center use cases with multi-100 GigE peering and VPN aggregation of up to 15,000 branch sites.

The C9550 Series and new 8000 Series Secure Routers are part of Cisco’s broader quantum-resilience roadmap, with hardware-rooted trust and post-quantum cryptography capabilities where supported. They can also be managed centrally through Cisco Cloud Control.

We are also expanding our Wi-Fi 7 portfolio with the Cisco CW9177 Series Outdoor Access Point, orderable in June 2026, which delivers 4x more capacity than previous generations and offers flexible internal, external, and directional antenna options. These devices are suited to outdoor patios, parking garages, and common areas.

And we are extending our industrial networking portfolio, too, with the Cisco IR1000 Rugged Series Secure Router, orderable in June 2026: two low-power, compact router variants with next-generation firewall capabilities. The IR1000 Series enables threat protection and resilient connectivity where space, power, and security requirements are exacting, such as grid networks and roadway infrastructure. The IR1000 Series can operate on solar or battery, with sub 5W power draw.

Collaboration for the AI era

Let’s go back to my starting premise: the very nature of the workforce is changing. People and AI are working side-by-side. The impact is felt across physical spaces, employee experiences, and customer experiences. At Cisco Live, we are introducing new innovations to improve how work gets done.

The new Cisco Board Pro G3, available in June 2026, is an all-in-one device that delivers cinematic experiences to meeting spaces with simplified Audio/Video-over-IP deployment. This device builds on the momentum of the Room Kit Pro G2 and Desk Pro G2 launched earlier this year.

The Webex Suite gets a new purpose-built agent, building on a set of existing digital teammates to make work more efficient: Meeting Prep Agent, generally available in Q3 CY26, pulls together agendas, documents, and notes before a meeting even starts.

We are also enhancing Webex Contact Center with the launch of an AI-native Workforce Engagement Management solution, available in beta in June 2026, unifying workforce, quality, and performance management to help plan, manage, and optimize human and AI agent work in one place.

The workforce of the future demands a workplace of the future

AI has moved from a tool people use to a teammate people work with. That changes everything about the workplace: who does the work, where it happens, how fast it moves, and what infrastructure must support.

The AI-ready Secure Network Architecture matters now more than ever. It is the foundation for the agentic workplace: simpler to operate through AgenticOps, more secure by design, built for scale, and ready for human and digital workers across every environment.

Learn more about how Cisco is advancing the AI-ready Secure Network Architecture, and explore deeper technical dives on AgenticOps, AI-ready switching and wireless, and Cisco Multicloud Fabric.

Forward-looking statement: Some products or features described may be in various stages of development and offered on a when-and-if-available basis. This reflects Cisco’s current product plans, which are subject to change and are not a binding commitment. The development, release, and timing of any product, feature, or functionality remain at Cisco’s discretion.