Cisco

It’s widely understood among business leaders today that AI is becoming table stakes. For it to make a difference, there needs to be a strategy for how it will provide an advantage, and then those plans need to be put in place.

Story audio is generated using AI Francine Katsoudas, executive vice-president and chief people, policy and purpose officer at Cisco, joins Business Day Spotlight host Mudiwa Gavaza. Katsoudas describes the mood at Cisco as upbeat, optimistic, and impatient to drive technological implementation after the group reported record revenue of $15.8bn for the third quarter to April 2026, up 12% year on year and better than analysts’ estimates.

News Summary: Cisco has been named the Official Network Supplier for The R&A, providing AI-ready infrastructure to support iconic Championships—including The Open and the AIG Women’s Open—as well as The R&A’s new global headquarters in St. Andrews.

Stay up to date with this show Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.

In the high-stakes world of Formula 1, success is measured in milliseconds. Every turn, every pit stop, and every data point processed can make the difference on track. For the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team, that pursuit of performance requires more than just world-class engineering on the car; it requires a digital foundation that is as fast, resilient, and intelligent as the machines they build.

Capturing the benefits of AI is critical. But organizations can’t just focus on technology. It’s equally important to evolve your culture — and use AI not to replace people, but to empower them. Cisco is a leader in AI, both in building the critical infrastructure and security for the AI era and in transforming its own workforce. Along the way, AI is impacting everything from the company’s coding and product design to HR and marketing.

On a drab, wind-swept day in Shinnecock, N.Y., last month, thousands of supercharged fans gathered to see the likes of Viktor Hovland, Maverick McNealy, Cameron Young defy the weather and electrify the 126th U.S. Open Championship. But golf’s biggest stars weren’t the only peak performers at the sport’s premier event.

New research from Cisco and Foundry finds that, three years from now, AI will triple network traffic. In two years, most enterprises will hit campus and branch network capacity limits. And globally, attack surfaces are already expanding beyond what defenses can manage. The report, "No time to wait: The accelerating impact of AI on campus and branch networks" confirms that, alongside compute, the network is now a major factor in whether enterprise AI deployments succeed or fail.

Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco, talks with security leaders Anthony Grieco, SVP and Chief Security & Trust Officer at Cisco, and Drew Hintz, Product Security Lead at OpenAI. Together, they explore how security teams are using AI agents to move at machine speed, strengthen enterprise resilience, and stay ahead of emerging challenges in the AI era.

US$ 600 bilhões de impacto anual: os custos de inatividade (downtime) para grandes empresas aumentaram 50% em apenas dois anos. US$ 15 mil por minuto: é o custo médio da indisponibilidade para as organizações, o que evidencia o impacto financeiro imediato das interrupções da operação. Queda de 3,4% no valor das ações: redução média observada no valor para os acionistas após um único incidente de inatividade, causado por ataques virtuais.