Cisco reorganizes its business and channel for the AI era

An internal transformation to boost the channel

Cisco has been restructuring its own business over the past twelve months with a clear goal: to help its channel grow in the era of artificial intelligence. The changes affect the commercialization model, incentives, platforms, and partner experience. This was highlighted by the company during the Cisco Partner Summit 2026, where it presented an approach called "customer zero" to reduce the administrative burden on partners and free up time they can devote to concrete results for their customers.

The reallocation of resources has been one of the most visible measures: part of the staff specialized in architecture has moved to frontline sales and partner relations positions. Tim Coogan, senior vice president of global partners at Cisco, explained that they detected "a certain imbalance" and that they needed to redirect professionals from the architecture organization to sales and channel support roles. However, he wanted to make it clear that "specialists still exist to support our partners and our customers."

Continuous training and AI agents on the front line

Álex Pujols, vice president of Solutions Engineering and Global Partner Sales at Cisco, stressed that the company is "training intensively" its internal salespeople. "The transitions are already underway," he said, adding that "one-off training no longer works." In his view, it makes no sense to train someone in the first quarter and do it again in the third; it must be a constant process.

That philosophy is also reflected in the internal use of artificial intelligence. Cisco has implemented 85,000 AI agents to automate routine administrative tasks. Pujols noted that they now have personal agents assigned to each employee and that many use them daily. Jeremy Sawyer, vice president of Strategy, Planning, and Sales Operations for global partners, commented that they have put the agents on the front line to reduce the volume of cases reaching human teams, since the agents resolve some on their own. According to Sawyer, in the pilot tests carried out so far, accuracy has been 100%, although some partners still call to verify that the agent was right.

From networks to critical infrastructure for AI

Stefan Leitl, vice president for Australia and New Zealand, explained that five years ago Cisco made a momentous decision to anchor the company around AI and become critical infrastructure for this era. By appointing a product director to coordinate the strategy, the company sought to return to its essence and be clear about what it contributes to its customers. Twelve months later, Leitl believes that the teams believe in the strategy more than ever and that customers and partners are understanding it.

Trust is another pillar of this transformation. Leitl spoke of psychological safety as a fundamental element for employees to feel safe when contributing ideas and holding difficult conversations. "That is our responsibility, frankly, to be a trustworthy company," he said, noting that in today's market there is a lot of fear and uncertainty.

What it means for an SME and what we recommend from ForgeNEX

For an SME, Cisco's moves are not just hallway news: they directly impact how it buys, deploys, and maintains its network and security infrastructure. The redirection of specialists toward sales and channel support roles can translate into more agile dealings with the technology partner, but it also requires the SME to be clear about what it needs and what it expects from its provider. The continuous training that Cisco requires of its salespeople is a sign that technical knowledge can no longer be taken for granted: SME IT teams must demand updated training and responsiveness from their partners.

The massive deployment of internal AI agents at Cisco is a practical example of how to automate repetitive tasks to free up time. In an SME, this can be applied to ticket management, incident classification, or responding to frequent queries. However, it is advisable to start with limited pilots and measure accuracy before delegating critical processes. Cisco's experience with partners verifying the agents' answers suggests that human oversight is still necessary, at least during the adoption phase.

The commitment to agentic AI also has security implications. As we have seen in cases such as KeyDrift, Cisco network environments are targets of sophisticated malware. Automating tasks must not come at the expense of protecting credentials and access. We recommend reviewing network segmentation, applying the principle of least privilege, and keeping detection and response systems up to date.

Finally, Cisco's strategy of becoming critical infrastructure for AI aligns with the trend we already see in the market: generative AI and agents are moving from experimentation to daily operations. For an SME, this means that the choice of platforms and providers must be made with integration and scalability in mind. It is not about adopting the latest trend, but about building a solid foundation that allows intelligent automation to be incorporated without compromising stability or security.

At ForgeNEX we recommend that SMEs take advantage of the greater attention Cisco is paying to the channel to hold strategic conversations with their partner: which AI agents can automate internal tasks, how to measure their accuracy, and what training teams need to manage them. It is also a good time to review service level agreements and ensure that the reallocation of resources at Cisco does not affect support quality. The transformation toward AI is an opportunity, but it requires planning and judgment.

Source: Computerworld. Analysis and adaptation: ForgeNEX.