Cisco has just released a new report The Race to Agentic AI: Why Infrastructure Will Make or Break Workforce Transformation, and some of the findings are striking. For instance, 80% of executives believe their company’s survival will depend on agentic AI by 2027.
The research, based on 650 executives across six countries, demonstrates a fundamental shift in executive-level thinking. On average (there are global variations), leaders expect 55% of their workforce to collaborate with AI agents within the next two years, and 87% have already reshaped strategic priorities to prepare.
The Race to Agentic AI report
Those already using AI agents in production, referred to in this report as “production pioneers,” are responding by centralising AI governance, modernising their digital infrastructure, and investing heavily, dedicating, on average, approximately 37% of technology budgets to agentic AI.
The production pioneers acknowledge that Agentic AI at scale is not possible on legacy infrastructure, and that the foundation must come first. Agentic AI demands a fundamentally different technical foundation. The executives surveyed for this report expect these investments to reshape their workforces within the next two years, not incrementally, but dramatically. The report explores how executives are preparing their organisations and people. And it reveals why the workforce of tomorrow will likely look different from today.
The report covers:
- Unlocking new opportunities for business impact with agentic AI
- Expectations to deliver on the promise of Agentic AI
- Exploring the network as the backbone of Agentic AI
- Metrics used to measure impact
- Expectations for the next 24 months
- Where upskilling is needed for the Agentic AI era
and more
Worth a read for those considering the future with Agentic AI, and awareness of the immediate demands that are on personnel and technology budgets.
