Let’s be sincere—we’ve all been speaking about AI prefer it’s one thing off within the distance. A factor we’ll put together for “sometime.” However that second? It’s already handed.
AI isn’t coming. It’s right here. Proper now.
Not tucked away in a lab. Not restricted to knowledge scientists. However embedded into how individuals are really getting work finished throughout each operate, each division, each business.
And right here’s the kicker: the community most enterprises are working at this time? It wasn’t constructed for this. Not even shut.
The shift that already occurred
In all places I look, I see AI going mainstream. Not in some flashy, sci-fi form of approach, however in sensible, on a regular basis workflows. Gross sales groups utilizing copilots to put in writing proposals. Entrepreneurs producing total campaigns with a immediate. Safety groups leaning on fashions to detect threats quicker than any human might.
It’s not hype. It’s not sometime. It’s right here.
AI is basically altering how networks function, driving new site visitors patterns, latency calls for, and workload behaviors.
Let me stroll you thru just a few examples that actually convey this to life.
LLMs within the cloud and SLMs on the edge to get work finished
Proper now, folks throughout your organization are utilizing AI-powered instruments to summarize emails, analyze knowledge, write stories, and even construct code. Most of these instruments depend on massive language fashions (LLMs) within the cloud, which suggests their units are consistently speaking forwards and backwards with AI utility programming interfaces (APIs).
However there’s a shift underway. As GPU prices drop and infrastructure on the edge improves, we’re beginning to see a transfer towards small language fashions (SLMs) working proper within the department or campus—nearer to the consumer, the place the info is.
Why does this matter for the community? As a result of immediately there are two utterly completely different site visitors patterns to cope with:
- Heavy north-south site visitors from the consumer to the cloud
- New east-west site visitors flows from native AI workloads spinning up on the sting
Each sorts of site visitors want low latency and excessive efficiency to really feel seamless to customers.
Actual-time video analytics
Cameras are now not simply recording video. They’re analyzing it in actual time. Whether or not it’s detecting intruders, analyzing foot site visitors, or monitoring security compliance, the AI-based evaluation is occurring reside, usually on the edge.
That strategy of recording and analyzing generates a ton of high-bandwidth site visitors, and it may’t all be shipped to the cloud. To keep away from safety dangers and permit for speedy response, knowledge must be processed regionally with pace and precision. Conventional networks simply weren’t designed for that form of load on the entry layer.
Dwell transcription and translation throughout conferences
Now, let’s say you’re on a Webex name and the assembly is being transcribed and translated in actual time. Appears easy, proper? However behind the scenes, your gadget is sending and receiving a continuing stream of audio and knowledge to an AI engine. Only one lagging translation engine can throw a gathering off track: misinterpreting key phrases, dropping sentences, and leaving individuals confused. Responses decelerate, readability fades, and the dialog rapidly loses momentum.
All of which suggests high-performance networking immediately turns into the distinction between a easy consumer expertise and a tough one.
AI brokers spawning AI brokers
This one blows my thoughts a bit of. We’ve entered the period of “agentic AI,” the place a single AI agent doesn’t simply do one thing for you by itself—it may recruit different brokers to assist.
Ask your AI assistant to “launch a advertising and marketing marketing campaign.” It spins up one agent to tug CRM knowledge to create a method, one other to put in writing copy, one other to generate visuals, and one more to launch and observe the content material throughout channels.
Every of those brokers is speaking with programs, knowledge sources, and one another at excessive velocity and infrequently with out human involvement. And the associated community site visitors patterns? They’re utterly completely different from something a standard community was constructed to deal with. We’re now not optimizing for folks clicking round. We’re optimizing for AI speaking to AI.
AI-augmented entry management
Authentication is now not nearly passwords. Many organizations are turning to AI-powered facial recognition, voice biometrics, and behavioral evaluation. These applied sciences can provide quicker, safer entry, however provided that your community can assist them.
Say an worker is working remotely and making an attempt to log in to a safe dashboard utilizing voice biometrics. They converse the passphrase, however the system hesitates—simply lengthy sufficient to day out. They struggle once more. Nonetheless no luck. Now they’re locked out, the clock’s ticking on a deadline, they usually’re caught ready for IT to type it out.
All of this as a result of the community couldn’t prioritize the site visitors quick sufficient for real-time authentication. It’s a small delay with a huge impact—and a transparent signal that the infrastructure won’t be prepared for AI-driven safety.
What this implies for the community
Should you’re pondering, “Wow, none of this seems like what we constructed our community for,” you’re not mistaken.
AI is rewriting the foundations and bringing with it:
- Unpredictable site visitors patterns
- Large spikes in east-west and north-south flows
- Tight latency necessities
- An explosion of short-lived, dynamic workloads
- Agent-to-agent site visitors that the majority IT instruments aren’t even monitoring but
The underside line? The previous mannequin—the place networks have been designed for folks utilizing apps—doesn’t minimize it anymore.
Now, your community has to assist machines speaking to machines—at machine pace.
If AI has already modified your community, what are you doing to maintain up?
This isn’t about making ready for AI. That window’s closed.
That is about realizing that AI is already altering the habits of your infrastructure. Whether or not your structure evolves to assist that actuality will decide should you preserve tempo or fall behind.
As a result of AI isn’t coming.
It’s already right here.
To maintain up, your operations want greater than old-school strategies. You want good, autonomous brokers that make all the things run smoother and quicker. It’s not simply an improve—it’s the way you keep forward.
Curious how Cisco is main the shift to AgenticOps?
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