The past few years have been dominated by the excitement and promise of generative AI, but now, the conversation is shifting to agentic AI. This isn’t just another technology trend—it’s the catalyst for the most significant workforce transformation in a generation.
In our new Cisco report with Omdia, “The Race to Agentic AI: Why Infrastructure Will Make or Break Workforce Transformation,” we surveyed 650 executives across six countries. One of the findings that stood out to me was that by 2027, 80% believe their company’s survival will depend on agentic AI.
For technology leaders, this is exposing a gap between yesterday’s infrastructure and what’s needed to run agentic AI securely and at scale. The hard truth is that more robust networks are needed—quickly.
On average, executives predict that 55% of their workforce will be collaborating with AI agents in the next 24 months. Yet legacy systems and a widening skills gap threaten to hold organizations back. Tech leaders in the study working for companies with AI agents in production see agentic AI as more than a technology upgrade—it hastens a fundamental reset for both infrastructure and people.
I spend a lot of time talking with Cisco customers—from startups to global enterprises. In nearly every conversation, I hear the same themes: excitement about AI’s potential mixed with concern over whether their infrastructure can keep up. What’s striking is how closely these real-world conversations mirror the research findings. Leaders want to move fast, but they know that real transformation only happens when technology, strategy, and people all move forward together.
Infrastructure reality check
As technology leaders begin to adopt agentic AI, it quickly becomes clear that an AI-augmented workforce can only move as fast as the infrastructure supporting it. When AI agents are making decisions and taking action across apps, clouds, and data, it’s the foundation—the data, the network, and the security controls—that make all the difference. They determine whether agentic AI scales or fails.
Our research found that 87% of leaders have already reshaped their organization’s strategic priorities to support agentic AI. Without resilient, secure, and agile infrastructure, the promise of agentic AI remains out of reach.
Redefining work, reinventing roles
The conversation around AI is shifting from job elimination to job evolution. Sixty-five percent of organizations expect agentic AI to create entirely new job categories over the next three to five years. The emergence of the Chief AI Officer is just one example of a role that blends technical depth with cross-functional leadership needed to move from pilots to enterprise-wide adoption of agentic AI.
Nearly 60% of employees will need to upskill— moving beyond prompt engineering, to learn to supervise, audit, and trust autonomous agents. This is as much a cultural transformation as a technological one.
Early adopters, early returns
Agentic AI is rapidly claiming a larger share of technology budgets among early adopters—now accounting for 37%. It’s a strong signal that agentic AI isn’t just a promising technology anymore—it’s a mandatory investment. Among organizations that have invested strategically in agentic AI infrastructure and workforce readiness, 43% report meaningful ROI and 39% anticipate returns within a year.
The agentic AI era begins now
The agentic AI era is here, ushering in a new wave of innovation. How technology leaders respond today will shape the relative success of their organizations tomorrow. Now is the time to invest in the infrastructure and talent needed to put agentic AI to work and unlock its transformative potential.