Cisco wished to make generative AI out there to each single worker in a safe, cost-optimized means. To do that, Cisco IT developed an inside AI-powered assistant — purpose-built with safety — designed to raise how staff worokay. Extra than simply one other device, Cisco’s inside AI assistant drives vital effectivity and frictionless experiences for workers – with 73% of customers reporting elevated productiveness and a median time financial savings of 5 hours per week.
As AI instruments like ChatGPT emerged within the market, we noticed each alternative and threat. Whereas Cisco acknowledged the transformative energy of AI and the outcomes these instruments may allow for our group, the growing utilization of public AI options additionally raised vital security and safety issues for enterprises.
Seven in ten executives consider generative AI within the enterprise introduces new safety dangers for firm information and are involved about staff inputting personally identifiable info (PII), shopper information, or propriety info into engines like ChatGPT and Google Gemini (Salesforce, 2023). Counting on exterior AI providers may expose delicate Cisco information to public coaching units — a threat we weren’t keen to take.
We wanted an answer that made generative AI out there to each single worker, regardless of the place they work from, whereas holding Cisco information safe and inside.
First steps to a safe answer
From day one, our precedence was holding Cisco’s information safe and in-house, not in another person’s coaching set. The unique structure Cisco’s Improvement Staff launched in April 2023 was designed to offer a safe setting for workers to soundly experiment with AI instruments. It was an enterprise-wide answer powered by Azure OpenAI fashions that maintained a dialog immediate retailer, audited prompts in actual time, and mechanically redacted personally identifiable info (PII) previous to processing.
Eight months after launch, the Cisco IT design staff stepped in to reinforce person expertise and drive broader adoption. Initially, solely 30% of the workforce — primarily technical staff — have been utilizing the device. The purpose was to make sure all staff, no matter their technical background, may gain advantage from it.
The staff took a user-centric and data-driven method, conducting foundational and generative analysis to completely perceive what staff wanted from this device. By leveraging all of the out there information about person ache factors, figuring out what staff have been looking for, and evaluating it with the highest areas of friction, the design staff constructed out key use circumstances for the assistant. These included options to assist staff brainstorm, code, translate, generate content material, study Cisco merchandise, and extra — finally lifting the load of on a regular basis work.
This analysis revealed that the primary factor staff have been searching for was IT assist — that means the true potential of Cisco’s inside AI assistant could possibly be unlocked via ingesting Cisco information. This grew to become the very best precedence.
Shifting ahead to assist staff
We began by ingesting Cisco Folks and Communities and Assist Zone information (articles, web sites, and stories) into the device. We had Retrieval Augmented Technology (RAG) options constructed for Cisco.com and SalesConnect (inside content material portal for all gross sales sources) purposes earlier. The identical capabilities have been added to the inner AI assistant as nicely to gauge the wants of gross sales customers — a target market our staff wished to handle.
With this high-quality Cisco information ingested within the device, staff can use AI for assist case troubleshooting, artistic writing, information evaluation, questions, and even technical duties like community monitoring and configuration. It might additionally streamline the onboarding course of for brand spanking new hires by supporting laptop computer or cell phone setup and answering questions on expense stories.
Establishing an ongoing working mannequin
Cisco’s inside AI assistant was constructed for fast integration, strong safety, and actionable insights, all at a world scale. That is supported by an ongoing working mannequin the place our staff repeatedly displays person suggestions and delivers options with agility, creating an iterative, full-circle course of.
To design an inside assistant finest suited to Cisco’s international workforce, we developed a layered structure round these parts:
- AI agent, MCP, and enterprise search platform: The AI Agent and Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP) platform hosts all of the AI brokers and MCP servers developed utilizing open-source AI frameworks. Its modular, plug-and-play structure offers the Enterprise AI/ML engineering staff the power to onboard new AI brokers and search purposes with out operational overhead. The platform additionally offers LLM-as-a-service and RAG-as-a-service providing to over 4300+ groups throughout Cisco.
- Enterprise AI agent registry and MCP registry: This registry permits staff to register and join all distant AI brokers and distant MCP servers developed by groups throughout the enterprise with standardized agent and MCP safety, agentic protocols and entitlements in order that staff can securely entry this related agentic mesh from the inner assistant.
- Hybrid multi-cloud mannequin and AI agent orchestration: Utilizing a federated method, our inside AI assistant connects to a number of Cisco AI brokers and main AI fashions resembling Azure OpenAI, Claude, Google Gemini and Cisco’s inside giant language mannequin — Deep Community Mannequin. The platform mechanically routes every request to the perfect out there AI mannequin for deployments primarily based on workload, latency, reliability, and use-case. This ensures customers all the time get quick, correct outcomes.
- Constructed-in safety, information governance, and observability: Safety is woven into each layer of the device, guaranteeing our office stays resilient in opposition to evolving threats whereas enabling innovation. Cisco’s AI Protection guardrails are used to scan person prompts and MCP server instruments for malicious code and hidden or missed threats.
- Superior information operations and AI-driven enterprise impression: Area particular AI brokers have been developed to allow clever automation of enterprise processes by leveraging AI prepared enterprise information.
This platform, alongside our ongoing working mannequin, allows us to deploy new options and effectively and persistently refine our roadmap — guaranteeing we keep on the forefront of AI innovation.
“Designed with a security-first mindset, our inside AI assistant has highly effective guardrails that mechanically detect and redact delicate information earlier than it’s despatched to a public AI mannequin — giving our staff an clever companion they will belief.” – Sujith Joseph, Principal Engineer, Cisco
Driving higher effectivity throughout our workforce
Since its launch, Cisco’s inside AI assistant has dealt with greater than 21 million interactions, serving 100,000+ customers throughout our international workforce.
Cisco’s inside AI assistant is greater than only a chatbot. It has rapidly develop into essentially the most broadly used AI device at Cisco, facilitating a median of 156,000 day by day interactions and driving higher effectivity as 73% of customers reported elevated productiveness and a median time saved of 5 hours per week.
That is made doable by options and developments presently out there within the device, together with:
- Entry to the newest AI fashions
- AI brokers and LLM orchestration
- Knowledge and picture evaluation
- PowerPoint era
- Private RAG (RAG on person’s private information in OneDrive, and many others.)
- Limitless Deep Analysis (Analysis stories utilizing Cisco inside information and net information)
- Knowledge evaluation AI agent
- Enterprise AI Agent and Connector Registry (Integration of distant AI brokers and MCP servers)
Classes discovered alongside the best way
AI instruments are solely ever as dependable as the info they’re skilled on. One problem we confronted early on was guaranteeing that we have been solely ingesting clear, high quality, and structured information into the device. Something much less may actually lower the standard of the responses and the usefulness of the answer. The Dev Staff performed continuous and rigorous testing to assist be sure that the assistant doesn’t hallucinate and persistently offers updated and correct responses.
Moreover, driving adoption throughout our international workforce offered challenges, particularly amongst AI-cautious or non-technical staff. Regardless of the answer’s approval for extremely confidential Cisco information, there was a degree of apprehension surrounding its use and potential misuse. This spurred an effort to upskill our staff by creating efficient demos, enablement sources, and growing common AI consciousness.
Our user-driven, design-led method was essential for navigating these challenges and allowed us to construct a device that caters to the wants of our numerous workforce. We proceed to finish generative analysis to grasp how our staff use the AI assistant and the way it will resonate with them of their day-to-day work.
From product to platform
AI is reworking industries at an unprecedented price. Whereas most organizations acknowledge the pressing must undertake AI applied sciences and instruments, many usually are not totally ready to successfully leverage AI. At Cisco, we all know that AI is now not a futuristic idea. We’re repeatedly innovating internally — growing AI-powered instruments, securing them, and finally empowering our staff to do their finest work day by day.
Constructing on its sturdy basis, Cisco is targeted on evolving the AI assistant from a product right into a dynamic platform, empowering staff to have a hand in shaping their AI expertise. The Agent Registry and upcoming Agent Builder options will allow customers to tailor the device to finest match their wants at work. Not solely will this improve the general usefulness and worth of the AI assistant, however it’s going to additionally assist upskill our workforce, constructing a extra technically proficient and AI-fluent worker inhabitants.
As a dedication to Cisco’s funding in AI, the Cisco Automation and AI Heart was not too long ago created to give attention to increasing the adoption of AI. Wanting forward, the imaginative and prescient for the inner AI assistant is to develop into a dependable, always-on companion that may seamlessly combine into each workflow, anticipate wants, and allow groups to give attention to what issues most.
The inner AI assistant isn’t simply altering how we work at Cisco; it’s a cornerstone of constructing a future-proofed office that’s safe, adaptable, and prepared for what’s subsequent.
Further sources:
Report: 77% of Staff Share Firm Secrets and techniques on ChatGPT Compromising Enterprise Insurance policies