Cisco Systems is rethinking how technology supports its 10,000 IT employees and the broader workforce of more than 90,000 under the direction of Chief Information Officer Fletcher Previn. The $57 billion networking company is adopting generative AI to enhance productivity and reshape traditional workflows. Previn has pushed for greater developer access to tools such as Cursor, Windsurf, and GitHub Copilot, noting that 70% of Cisco’s 20,000 developers now log in to AI coding tools monthly.
“AI is getting better,” Previn said. “It’s supporting more programming languages. Developers are getting more comfortable with it.” He expects AI could eventually generate 70% of Cisco’s code. Beyond software, Cisco is deploying AI across IT and business functions, from onboarding processes to hardware refresh cycles. By analyzing telemetry and application performance, AI helps determine whether laptops need repairs or replacements, saving costs at scale.
Previn is also restructuring IT roles into cross-functional teams dedicated to platforms like Workday, SAP, and Oracle, avoiding the inefficiencies of temporary project-based groups. Looking ahead, he foresees an “agent-to-agent world” where digital AI teammates autonomously manage tasks such as scheduling and system updates. “The rate of innovation in AI is happening so quickly that if you find out your developers are using a language model that is six months old, then effectively, all the software you’re writing is already six months out of date,” Previn warned.