Outshift By Cisco On Connecting The Next Generation Of AI Agents

At Cisco Live, I sat down with Papi Menon, Vice President of Product Management at Outshift by Cisco, to explore one of the most ambitious ideas emerging in the AI world today.

While much of the industry remains focused on larger models and individual AI agents, Outshift is asking a different question. What happens when millions of AI agents need to collaborate across organizations, platforms, and industries?

Papi joined me to explain the thinking behind Outshift, Cisco's emerging technology and incubation group, and the work they're doing to help shape the next era of AI. Our conversation explored concepts such as the Internet of Agents, the Internet of Cognition, and AGNTCY, an open-source initiative designed to create the foundations for agent-to-agent collaboration at scale.

We discuss why connecting AI agents is only the first step, why shared intent and shared context could become as important as connectivity itself, and how organizations may need entirely new infrastructure to support an increasingly agent-driven future. Papi also shares his perspective on the challenges of interoperability, governance, trust, and security as AI systems become more autonomous and interconnected.

The discussion moves beyond today's AI headlines and into the bigger questions facing the technology industry. If the internet connected people and systems, what infrastructure will be needed to connect intelligence itself? And what role can open standards play in ensuring that future remains collaborative rather than fragmented?

Whether you're a technology leader, developer, strategist, or simply curious about where AI is heading next, this conversation offers a fascinating glimpse into how Cisco is thinking about the future of agentic computing and the foundations that may underpin the next major platform shift in technology.

How do you think AI agents will collaborate in the future, and should that future be built on open standards or closed ecosystems?