Cisco Live 2026 Preview: AI, Security, and Partner Changes

Ahead of its annual North American conference in Las Vegas, Cisco has spent the last few months rolling out a steady stream of AI-focused announcements touching nearly every corner of its business, from networking and cybersecurity to certifications and channel programs.

Recent earnings report shows record revenue due to AI infrastructure demand

The company’s latest quarterly earnings made that strategy impossible to miss. Cisco reported record third-quarter revenue of $15.8 billion, up 12% year over year, driven largely by demand for AI infrastructure and networking products.

“Cisco delivered record quarterly revenue in Q3, and we saw very strong, broad-based demand for our products, demonstrating the relevance of our technology for connecting and securing AI,” CEO Chuck Robbins said in the company’s earnings release.

Cisco also raised its expectations for AI-related orders this fiscal year, now targeting $9 billion in AI infrastructure orders, up from an earlier forecast of $5 billion.

That momentum is expected to dominate discussions at Cisco Live, where the company is preparing to spotlight AI networking, secure AI infrastructure, observability, and autonomous operations tools across its product stack.

Partners face a new Cisco ecosystem

Earlier in the year, Cisco launched the Cisco 360 Partner Program. The program restructures Cisco’s approach to evaluating and rewarding partners, focusing on three core outcomes: AI-ready data centers, future-proof workplaces, and digital resilience.

It also introduces new partner designations and incentive models tied directly to expertise and lifecycle value rather than transactional sales. 

Cisco says the program is designed to make it easier for customers to identify the right partners for complex transformation projects, particularly in AI infrastructure and security. 

The goal is to shift the ecosystem toward outcome-based engagement models in which partners are evaluated on the value delivered across the customer lifecycle. 

This aligns Cisco with the approach that more vendors seem to be taking in 2026, as the channel embraces long-term advisory opportunities across AI, security, and more.

Security and AI agents move into focus

Security is also emerging as one of Cisco’s biggest themes heading into the event.

Earlier this month, the company announced plans to acquire Astrix Security, a startup focused on securing non-human identities and AI agents. Cisco described the deal as part of a wider effort to secure what it calls the “agentic workforce.”

“These agents represent an entirely new class of coworker,” Cisco wrote in its announcement. “This is the new attack surface, and it is growing faster than most organizations realize.”

The acquisition is expected to strengthen Cisco’s identity intelligence and zero-trust offerings while adding tools for AI agent governance, credential management, and threat detection.

Cisco has also been pushing deeper into AI-driven cybersecurity workflows. In mid-May, the company open-sourced its Foundry Security Spec, a framework designed to help organizations build AI-powered security evaluation systems that can identify vulnerabilities at machine speed.

The system is designed around AI-orchestrated, validated, and automated detection pipelines rather than traditional manual security review processes.

Certifications are getting an AI overhaul

Cisco is also revamping its training and certification portfolio to reflect how AI is changing IT operations.

The company recently announced the first major update to its CCNA certification blueprint since 2019, adding a stronger focus on AI-assisted networking, automation, troubleshooting, and security-first infrastructure design.

The refreshed exam is scheduled to launch in Feb. 2027, with new training materials already rolling out through Cisco U. Cisco is also redesigning its elite CCIE certification path to include a new “AI Deploy, Operate, and Optimize” module focused on AI-assisted network operations and AIOps workflows.

“The new AI module will be accompanied by a change in exam format,” Cisco said in its announcement, adding that candidates will be tested on how they use AI tools for troubleshooting, diagnostics, and network operations.

The move reflects a major industry shift as networking engineers increasingly transition from manual infrastructure management to AI-assisted orchestration roles.

Layoffs cast a shadow over Cisco’s AI expansion

Not all of Cisco’s recent news has been celebratory. Despite posting record quarterly revenue, the company also confirmed plans to cut fewer than 4,000 jobs, under 5% of its workforce, as it restructures around AI priorities.

In a memo to employees, Robbins said companies competing in the AI era must continuously shift investment toward areas with the strongest long-term demand.

“This means making hard decisions – about where we invest, how we’re organized, and how our cost structure reflects the opportunity in front of us,” Robbins wrote. 

Cisco said it will continue investing heavily in silicon, optics, AI infrastructure, and security while reducing roles in other parts of the company.

Industry observers expect the restructuring, along with Cisco’s aggressive AI positioning, to be a major backdrop at Cisco Live as partners and customers evaluate where the networking giant is placing its future bets.

Cisco Live heads to Las Vegas

Cisco Live 2026 is scheduled to run from May 31 through June 4 in Las Vegas and is expected to attract more than 20,000 attendees from over 75 countries, according to event estimates.

The conference will feature technical sessions, executive keynotes, hands-on labs, certification programs, partner showcases, and networking events centered on AI, cybersecurity, networking infrastructure, observability, and enterprise IT modernization. 

For partners, the event may offer the clearest picture yet of how Cisco plans to balance AI growth, security expansion, and organizational restructuring in the year ahead.