InformationWeek CIO Corner: Catching Up with Cisco’s Fletcher Previn
In a follow-up conversation, Cisco’s CIO and senior vice president discussed how the hybrid workplace, development, and his own role have evolved.
Senior VP & Chief Information Officer, Cisco
Search every verified Fletcher Previn interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Fletcher Previn, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Cisco, has been discussing the accelerated pace of technological change and the integration of AI into enterprise operations. In a November 2025 interview with InformationWeek, he described the current technology shift as moving faster than Moore's law and outlined Cisco IT's goals of having 50% of work assisted by AI and improving employee experience by 50%. He also noted that the new bottleneck in software development is product management rather than software engineering, and discussed emerging security threats such as AI-targeted attacks embedded in web pages. Previn has characterized AI as a "teammate" rather than a replacement for people, and has described the next great programming language as potentially being English. Previn has also spoken about Cisco's internal AI infrastructure, including building a GPU-based cluster using Cisco Ethernet fabric and compute, and deploying an AI cluster with 256 Nvidia H100 GPUs that arrived by armored car. He has discussed implementing AI tools like GitHub Copilot and a private instance of ChatGPT with data privacy protections. In earlier appearances, he addressed the role of IT in shaping company culture, the importance of user experience design, and the benefits of Mac deployment programs in enterprise settings. Previn has emphasized that culture is a unique competitive advantage and that IT should function as a servant function enabling employees to do their best work.
In a follow-up conversation, Cisco’s CIO and senior vice president discussed how the hybrid workplace, development, and his own role have evolved.
AB sits down with Cisco’s CIO, Fletcher Previn, to talk about the role IT plays in driving business success. Fletcher shares his thoughts on the skills needed for the future of IT, how AI can enhance human potential, and why individual creativity can drive even better IT experiences and outcomes.
Every minute an employee spends struggling with a system is a minute they're not doing the work they were hired to do and the work they're passionate about. That's friction that IT has a unique responsibility to alleviate. Join Fletcher Previn, Cisco SVP & Chief Information Officer, for a keynote address on the unique role and responsibility of IT in shaping culture and employee experience in enterprise organizations, and how Cisco IT leverages AI as a force multiplier. Look for sessions on-demand at ciscolive.com. Follow ‘Cisco Live EMEA’ on social media and join the conversation using #Cisc…
Cisco’s CIO, Fletcher Previn, talks about how to create a technology culture, what it’s like being “customer zero”, and other challenges and tribulations of running IT from inside one of the world’s largest tech companies. Fletcher Previn - / fletcherprevin Heavy Strategy is part of the Packet Pushers network. Visit our website to find more great networking and technology podcasts, along with tutorial videos, the Human Infrastructure newsletter, and loads more resources for building your IT career. https://packetpushers.net
Generative AI has captured the attention of business leaders worldwide as the next fundamental shift in how organizations will run: But despite 97% of companies feeling an increased urgency to deploy these technologies, just 14% are fully ready to integrate AI successfully into their businesses, according to Cisco’s latest AI Readiness Index. In this iTalk, you’ll learn how Cisco is strategically approaching key pillars of AI security, collaboration, observability and services management, with learnings from our own IT, Security, and Application leaders on how they’ve worked through challeng…
Cisco SVP and CIO Fletcher Previn returns again to JNUC to discuss the real-world impact of Mac in the enterprise. Having now led two of the largest Mac programs in the enterprise at IBM and now at Cisco, Previn will share the payoffs of challenging the status quo and taking intelligent risks to deploy a Mac program at scale. Previn provides deeper insight into a CIO’s perspective on delivering frictionless employee experiences and the opportunities for IT to drive culture change in the enterprise.
Today we are talking to Fletcher Previn, the CIO at IBM. And we discuss how to progress your career, what IT modernization looks like in the government sector, and how to balance the long term effects of remote work. All of this, right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
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