Cisco prepares for networking supercycle driven by AI demand

Cisco is positioning itself to capitalize on a global networking supercycle driven by the rise of artificial intelligence and increased demand for data center and infrastructure upgrades. The company reported a 35% year-on-year increase in product orders for fiscal year 2026 and anticipates 15% revenue growth for fiscal year 2027.

This demand is fueled by a massive installed base requiring infrastructure refreshes to handle AI-driven traffic and heightened security threats. Cisco notes that frontier AI models can now detect network vulnerabilities at machine speed, making older hardware insufficient for modern security needs. The company expects to gain market share through its vertically integrated stack, which allows it to serve various deployment environments, including public clouds, private AI clouds, and campus edges, without relying on external partners.

Internally, Cisco IT has already completed a global rollout of Wi-Fi 7 across its hundreds of facilities and 90,000 employees. By utilizing its own networking portfolio, the company transitioned to the new IEEE standard to provide higher speeds, lower latency, and greater capacity to meet the bandwidth demands of AI tools.