Cisco Wireless CTO: Mastering connectivity is the key to driving AI success and enterprise productivity – but beware of the ‘wireless AI paradox’

In the last five years enterprise connectivity has gone from being a baseline capability to a strategic imperative, and this shift in focus is being driven in part by AI-related demands.

That’s according to Cisco’s inaugural State of Wireless Report. It found business wireless connectivity now represents a “strategic growth engine” for enterprises, helping to drive innovation and deliver downstream success in technology adoption.

Speaking to ITPro ahead of the report’s publication, Cisco Wireless CTO Matt MacPherson said businesses have ramped up investment in connectivity in response to a number of overlapping factors.

“If you go back a few years, it was all about connectivity,” he said. “If you get on the network, that’s what drives productivity, and the more you could get connected to the internet, the more that you have these resources available to you, the gains would be achieved.”

“Now connectivity is sort of assumed, but now it needs to meet the requirements of these next generation applications and services.”

AI workloads, an influx of IoT tools, high-bandwidth applications, and even hot desking have all precipitated huge funding increases and a sharpened focus on wireless connectivity, the report found.

Indeed, 80% of respondents told Cisco they’ve increased investment over the last five years, and 29% have increased budgets by 50% or more across that period.

Looking ahead, they plan to continue in this vein, with a growing number of respondents detailing plans to upgrade to the 6GHz spectrum, and nearly three-in-five firms planning to deploy Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 in the next year to modernize connectivity.

Downstream benefits of network modernization

With AI now dominating the C-suite focus, the impetus to improve connectivity capabilities has skyrocketed, according to Cisco, and for good reason.

The report identified a direct link between increased wireless investment and positive business outcomes, including a return on investment (ROI) in areas such as AI.

More than three-quarters (78%) reported operational efficiency gains from wireless investment, for example, while 75% saw employee productivity improvements. The benefits are also being felt in customer engagement, Cisco found, while 68% reported positive revenue impact.

MacPherson told ITPro that these findings show the penny has dropped for many enterprises with regard to connectivity.

Simply put, modernization efforts in this domain have a “multiplier effect” across the business - especially in AI, and it comes at a critical juncture in global roll-outs.

ROI – or lack thereof – has been a growing concern with generative AI. While recent studies show signs of improvement on this front, many have faced issues with outdated infrastructure.

The demand placed on networks by skyrocketing AI data flows also means enterprises can’t afford to shirk investment on this front. Low latency and capacity are critical in keeping the lights on in this regard.

“I think what’s really clear with some of the data that we pulled in here is the wireless infrastructure underneath is often an afterthought, but absolutely critical for achieving the ROI that people are expecting,” MacPherson noted.

“It’s easy to start loading up the network with some of these new workflows, and then suddenly realize that the network becomes the bottleneck to getting the execution that you’d like to see.”

The “wireless AI paradox”

As in many other areas, when it comes to wireless connectivity AI can be a double edged sword, Cisco found, which the company described as an “wireless AI paradox”.

While AI is helping drive modernization efforts in wireless connectivity and deliver ROI, it also functions as the “principal catalyst of operational complexity and risk”.

“AI has huge promise [and] we’re already seeing big gains – and I think we’re going to continue down that road,” MacPherson told ITPro, “but at the same time, AI can add additional complexity.”

MacPherson used cybersecurity risks as an example of how this paradox is unfolding for businesses. The technology is now being used to automate network management to great effect, the study found.

The vast majority (98%) of those using AI in network management report significant gains, saving an average of three hours and 20 minutes per person, per day.

At the same time, however, threat actors are actively using the technology to automate attacks. Organizations are now engaged in a war of attrition, with AI acting as the primary defensive and offensive weapon.

“Not only does AI speed up the capability to manage a network, immediately see where the issues are in the network, immediately see breaches in the network, and whether those breaches have moved horizontally to cause a more broad problem across your infrastructure,” he explained.

“At the same time you’ve got nefarious forces using AI that can just sit there and keep hammering at your network, whether it's a denial of service type attack, et cetera,” MacPherson added.

Skills shortages are exacerbating the paradox

The third and final aspect of this paradox lies in skills, according to Cisco. Firms are facing significant personnel shortages, which is amplifying complexity and leaving them open to threats.

Nearly nine-in-ten (89%) wireless leaders told Cisco they struggle to hire professionals in networking and connectivity, which in turn is driving 70% higher security incident costs.

Worse still, it’s trapping teams in a vicious cycle of “reactive operations”. Addressing this area will be a key priority for enterprises moving forward, MacPherson told ITPro.

Teams working in this domain need “advanced AI expertise” to navigate the challenges faced in both network modernization, but also in integration of the technology.

MacPherson noted that these talent shortages are akin to previous network modernization periods, particularly the 5G roll-out. Enterprises need time to adapt to changes, and talent acquisition efforts will ramp up accordingly.

“We’ve seen these types of things before when we were doing a lot of work converging, for example, 5G and Wi-Fi networks indoor and outdoors, it was really hard to find someone that was really good at 5G and Wi-Fi and could unify those architectures,” he said.

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