Cisco is not a technology company. it is a bloated old tech blue chip utility with exceedingly corrosive technical debt disguised as high tech. Cisco Live will be 100% about AI. AI Agents, AI Security, AI Sidekick/copilot/notebook/canvas etc. As with every technology transition over the past 20 years, Cisco is late and timed their "all in" to moments before the industry crash. heck, Micheal "Big Short" Burry is shorting NVIDIA.
think of it this way- If everyone uses AI to lay off their highest paid workers then who are the customers for whatever actual product they sell? One mans income is another mans expense. this is Econ 101
it's already happening. companies are reducing switchport spend because they simply don't need switches anymore. most of the workers still WFH. offices are downsizing. the push to get workers back into the office is backfiring. they effectively reduced their employees income by 20% (commute cost, car repair, daycare, drycleaning, food expense, etc)
they are desperate to sell switchports but can't get out of their own way. they are desperate to sell security but are laughed at by every security pro.
now, they are desperate to be relevant in AI
"Agentic" is the new buzzword, expect to hear a deafening amount of that at Cisco Live next week. It is AI slop nonsense and causes more problems than it solves.
Once the ELT (which is a sales org, not a technology org) is convinced that they can lay off engineers and replace them with AI agents, they will do that. In fact, they already are. The remaining staff will be an AI Agent echochamber until the crash.
look around. car dealer's lots are piling up with unsold inventory. hardware stores cant sell construction supplies or patio furniture. Technology exists to serve business functions. businesses are starting to crack under the pressure to keep up with the AI slop