The AI Builder Podcast
How Cisco Is Becoming AI-Native: Jeetu Patel on Agents, Security and Work
Cisco is becoming AI-native by redesigning both how its 90,000 employees work and how autonomous agents are secured.
What you’ll learn
- Becoming AI-native is a two-track redesign: how 90,000 employees work, and how autonomous agents are secured.
- Patel's message to Cisco's workforce: become dangerously good at AI — don't ask for permission.
- Autonomous agents change the security model — securing them is as much a part of AI-native as changing how people work.
About this episode
Cisco's AI-native push runs on two tracks at once. The first is people: redesigning how 90,000 employees actually work with AI — Patel's message to the company is to become dangerously good at it, without waiting for permission. The second is machines: rebuilding security for autonomous agents that act on their own.
Jeetu Patel, Cisco's President and Chief Product Officer, talks through what that transformation looks like from the top of one of the world's largest infrastructure companies — how work changes, how agents are secured, and what both mean for the people doing the work today.
Questions this episode answers
What does becoming AI-native mean at Cisco?
It means redesigning both sides of the company at once: how its 90,000 employees work with AI day to day, and how autonomous agents — software that acts without a human in the loop — are secured.
What is Jeetu Patel's advice to employees about AI?
Become dangerously good at AI — and don't wait for permission to start.
