AI’s impact is undeniable, but customers face mounting urgency to unlock its value amid infrastructure constraints, data complexities, and skills gaps. For the second year in a row, we’ve conducted a survey of partners around the world to uncover the challenges and opportunities they face in supporting their customers’ AI ambitions. Our 2025 study, “From Readiness to Realization highlights both the value gaps and new growth opportunities.
Clear themes are emerging:
- IT Infrastructure is seeing more load, less AI readiness and remains the missing foundation in customers’ ability to derive value from AI.
- AI data and governance is increasing in complexity, a clear area where partners have opportunity to gain experience and knowledge.
- The next waves of growth are already revealing themselves with Agentic and Edge AI, even if customers are just starting on the journey.
Our double-blind survey of more than 1,500 partners comes on the heels of Cisco’s flagship AI Readiness Index which explores global companies’ ability to adopt and take advantage of AI. That study showed that the most AI-ready organizations are 4x more likely to move pilots into production and 50% more likely to see measurable value, yet deficiencies remain in infrastructure, data, governance, and talent needed to implement AI effectively. Our partner-focused study reinforces critical customer needs and how Cisco partners can add the most value.
Key findings:
- Revenue Growth: An increasing number of partners (42%, up from 35% last year) expect that they will drive over 75% of their revenue from AI within the next four to five years.
- Customer Expectations: Partners say that their customers expect AI to improve efficiency (68%, up from 63% last year), create a better experience for external stakeholders (47%), and offer value to internal users (45%, up from 27%).
- Increasing Urgency: Almost all partners (92%) report a growing sense of urgency among customers to realize a return on their technology investment, with more than half (52%) stating that urgency has increased significantly in the past six months, driven by C-suite demands for tangible outcomes and value from AI investments.
- More Load, Less Readiness: 95% think the workload of IT infrastructure will increase as deployment of AI / AI powered technologies increases, yet just over half (58%) rate overall AI readiness of customers’ IT infrastructure as moderate at best.
- AI Data and Governance Complexity: More than a third (35%) identify insufficient data readiness and poor data quality as one of the top challenges that hinder customers’ deployment of AI technologies at scale and speed. Most partners (93%) say they understand the data needs of their customers. Yet when it comes to having the right talent and resources, only half say they are
- The Next Horizon: Both Agentic and Edge AI represent new waves of growth for customers starting the journey. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of partners said customers find it difficult to find the right balance between Agentic AI, bots and human involvement in workflows. To support Edge AI at scale, most customers (75%) face obstacles in collecting, storing, and processing data effectively and must navigate a fragmented technology (74%) with insufficient compute power (67%).
Preparing Partners with AI Specialization
Cisco remains committed to empowering our partners with the necessary skills and knowledge to help customers bridge the AI readiness gap through the Cisco Black Belt Academy. This past year, we introduced the Cisco Nexus HyperFabric enablement journey to help enterprises operationalize generative AI, building upon the AI Fundamentals for Partners training program that we rolled out last year. Our survey found that more than a third (34%; up from 6% last year) say they have limited or no awareness and understanding of cyber security threats specific to AI and machine learning systems, highlighting a need for continued learning as complexity increases. Partners’ technical and sales excellence serve as a competitive differentiator and directly translate to enhanced program benefits and business growth in the new Cisco 360 Partner Program, with clearer, simpler pathways to maximize partner rewards.
Accelerating AI Value and Growth for Our Customers
This year, more partners say a bigger portion of their revenue will come from AI, and faster. Nearly half (40%) said their customers would like AI to open new revenue streams for them in the next 12 months. This marks a significant evolution in AI’s perceived value: from being primarily an operational enabler to becoming a direct contributor to topline growth. We encourage Cisco partners to participate in our AI training programs and join our Early Access Community to gain a competitive advantage in helping drive that growth. Together we have a tremendous opportunity to position ourselves as trusted AI advisors and capitalize on this market opportunity.
Unlock the full potential of AI with insights from our 2025 Global AI Partner Study
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