Charles Robbins on AI infrastructure
From Cisco Live 2026 Las Vegas: LIVE Broadcast - Opening Keynote #CiscoLive · · Cisco Live EMEA
“Based on what we know today, we believe that the network traffic associated with AI will triple in the next three years. Remember when video was like revolutionary and we kept upgrading networks and everything? Here we are again. And, by the way, we think they're going to triple based on what we know today. We have robotics, we have manufacturing, we have physical AI. All those things are going to put traffic on the networks at an incredible pace.”
On , Charles Robbins, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Cisco Systems Inc, spoke about AI infrastructure during Cisco Live 2026 Las Vegas: LIVE Broadcast - Opening Keynote #CiscoLive on Cisco Live EMEA.
About Charles Robbins
Charles Robbins, Chairman and CEO of Cisco, has been discussing the company's positioning for what he described as a "networking supercycle" driven by AI. During Cisco's third quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings call, Robbins reported record revenue of $15.8 billion, with product orders up 35% year-over-year and networking orders up more than 50%. He attributed this growth in part to a 2016 acquisition of an Israeli chip company that became the foundation of Cisco's Silicon One technology, stating that without it, the company would be "trying to figure out what's our role in AI." Robbins stated that AI product orders had tripled during the quarter and described an ongoing "multi-year multi-billion dollar network refresh opportunity." He also warned on the earnings call that the company faces a "real capacity issue" in the supply chain, particularly with memory components. At Cisco Live 2026 in Las Vegas, Robbins addressed what he called the "agentic era," stating that "every agent generates about 450% more traffic than a human for conducting that same task." He said Cisco is shifting from being "a collection of products" to a "fully integrated platform" and described the company as "the critical infrastructure for the AI era." Robbins discussed the emergence of AI models like Mythos, which he said are "as bad today as they are ever going to be," and called for the cybersecurity industry to shift "from thinking that we're 100% competitors to thinking that we're actually in this game together." In media interviews, Robbins said he believes leadership requires making decisions with about 80% of the necessary information and adapting "on the fly," and he described passive-aggressive behavior as "death in an organization."