Cisco analysis reveals organizations’ challenges and readiness to undertake AI
Creating actually implausible buyer experiences is exhausting. Interval. Expertise evolves, buyer expectations rise, and organizations wrestle to maintain tempo with both, not to mention each. However Agentic AI is altering that equation.
I dug into the 2025 Cisco AI Readiness Index and pulled out the important thing tendencies shaping how organizations are utilizing AI to rework buyer expertise.
CX is successful the AI race
Buyer expertise is the place AI, notably Agentic AI, is making the most important influence proper now. 67 % of respondents mentioned AI is assembly or exceeding buyer expertise expectations as we speak, and throughout the subsequent 12 months, nearly half predict additional breakthroughs. With 40 % of respondents anticipating these AI brokers will collaborate immediately with people throughout the subsequent yr, this expectation will not be solely real looking but additionally a transparent reflection of the evolving partnership between folks and know-how.
Right here’s why: CX workflows are closely depending on human interplay. The true energy of Agentic AI will not be changing these people; it’s augmenting them. AI handles the repetitive duties, liberating groups to give attention to high-value actions that truly create customized experiences clients care about.
Agentic AI adoption is coming quick, however most aren’t prepared
Organizations are betting huge on agentic AI’s autonomous capabilities. 83 % plan to deploy AI brokers throughout the subsequent yr. However enthusiasm doesn’t equal readiness. Solely 13 % of corporations are ready to leverage AI successfully.
The issue? Most orgs are approaching AI adoption backwards. 53 % of respondents are nonetheless navigating AI adoption in silos, working fragmented, opportunistic initiatives as an alternative of constructing cohesive methods. That’s not a deployment plan, that’s hope dressed up as motion.
There’s an enormous hole between AI ambition and AI execution.
Strategic planning is lacking piece
There’s an enormous hole between AI ambition and AI execution. I hear about this consistently from clients beginning their AI journeys. They wish to transfer the needle. They only don’t understand how.
The reply? A cohesive AI change administration plan. But solely a 3rd of organizations have truly constructed one.
Right here’s what an actual change administration plan does: it guides your folks, course of, and know-how via AI prioritization, adoption, and integration. It creates shared understanding throughout the org about what AI can do, what success appears like, and the way you’ll get there. Most significantly, it defines particular use circumstances with measurable outcomes, not aspirational energy level.
At Cisco CX, we’ve constructed our AI transformation this fashion. We aligned our capabilities with clear know-how and enterprise targets earlier than we began constructing. We outlined the outcomes we would have liked to hit. Then we constructed in direction of these outcomes, not towards the good demo.
The way forward for CX begins now
We’re dedicated to serving to clients bridge the hole between Agentic AI ambition and actuality, making each buyer interplay predictive, proactive, and customized.
This isn’t a distant imaginative and prescient. Our analysis exhibits 68 % of buyer interactions might be dealt with by agentic AI by 2028. The way forward for buyer expertise is already right here. The one query is whether or not you might be prepared for it.
Study extra — Learn the Cisco AI Readiness Index 2025 and its in-depth report
