Cisco Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel claims three AI-related traffic waves will stress current network architectures and force a complete re-think of infrastructure from the data center out to the campus edge.

Patel told attendees during the recent Deutsche Bank Technology Conference that the first wave is coming from so-called “chatbots,” where “I ask a question, I get an answer back.” Patel said these AI platforms “have very spikey traffic patterns,” where “the utilization spikes up and then comes right back down.”

This pattern is being handled competently by current network architectures.

The next AI-driven traffic wave is coming from agentic AI, which are set to amplify those chatbot peaks into a sustained higher level of activity.

“The traffic patterns start to get much more sustained and persistent over time,” Patel noted of this model. “And so our current infrastructure is simply not built to go out and accommodate that level of traffic pattern.”

The third pattern is what Patel called “physical AI, where you’re going to need some more edge-based computing and edge-based networking that’s only going to compound the requirements.”

Patel explained that those last two traffic patterns are driving enhanced infrastructure requirements “both in campus branch as well as in data centers,” with the latter also needing to adhere to power limitations.

“And so what you're starting to see is re-architecting of data centers to accommodate for this new additional volume of usage,” Patel explained. “And you're also starting to see re-architecting of campus branch networks because everything from Wi-Fi to routing switching needs to get rethought.”

Impact on capacity and spend

Dell’Oro Group echoed this concern in a recent report, which forecast increased spending on campus Ethernet switch gear “as enterprises invest in higher capacity networks.”

“The wide use of AI agents is expected to put new requirements on the [LAN],” Dell’Oro Group Research Director Siân Morgan wrote. “It is still too early to determine exactly how it will play out, but traffic patterns, volumes, and sensitivity to latency are likely to change – leaving room for product differentiation by campus switch vendors. Enterprises recognize the importance of a high-performance LAN, especially as they plan for the implementation of AI use cases.”

Patel’s latest warning also followed one penned earlier this year that predicted “a future where billions of AI agents are working together harmoniously on our behalf, around the globe and around the clock,” adding that this will shine a brighter focus on network constraints. “None of this will work without ultra-fast, low-latency, energy-efficient, and highly secure networks,” Patel wrote.