Cisco uses genAI to improve efficiency

Bengaluru: Cisco is leveraging generative AI to streamline repetitive tasks at its technology assistance centre, freeing up engineers to focus on more complex and meaningful work when customers encounter technical issues. Daisy Chittilapilly, President of Cisco's India and SAARC, emphasized that the company does not need to eliminate any employees due to the implementation of GenAI, as it allows them to redirect their efforts to more significant tasks.Cisco currently employs 35,000 people in India. Earlier this year, the company announced layoffs affecting 5% of its global workforce, or over 4,000 jobs, as it navigates a cautious business environment. The layoffs will result in $800 million in charges related to severance packages and benefits.
Chittilapilly attributed the layoffs to the fact that many economies entered a state of recession and Cisco had emerged from a supply chain crisis. She stressed the importance of considering these factors when assessing business growth. However, Cisco has completed its restructuring process, and she said no further layoffs are planned for the current year.
In a separate development, Cisco is introducing the Meraki India Region, a new cloud region hosted within the country. This initiative aims to assist businesses in India in accelerating their transition to the cloud while ensuring compliance with local data storage and privacy requirements. Meraki offers a comprehensive suite of networking solutions, including wired, wireless, SD-WAN, secure networking, and IoT capabilities. These solutions provide customers with centralized visibility and control, unified management of wireless and wired networks, and reduced operational expenses.
Chittilapilly highlighted that Meraki would target small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that are accelerating their digital transformation journeys while prioritizing data sovereignty as an integral part of their business operations.