Cisco highlighted rising pressure on enterprise networks from AI deployments, warning campus and branch infrastructure is emerging as a potential bottleneck for companies scaling the technology.

In a study conducted with UK-based technology media company Foundry, Cisco found organisations are caught between accelerating AI ambitions and network constraints which could slow progress. It stated more than half of enterprises now have widespread generative AI (genAI) deployments. However, 73% of respondents said AI expansion will cause them to hit campus and branch capacity limits within 24 months.

Indeed, pressure is already building as respondents reported a 34% average increase in campus and branch network traffic tied to AI workloads over the past year, with a further 96% spike expected within the coming year.

Respondents reported AI was already reshaping traffic patterns, with 67% citing increases in internal data traffic tied to AI workloads, while 61% saw growth in continuous automated traffic generated by AI systems. “Suddenly, three AI agents are trying to talk to each other and solve a problem. That is going to be a big thing,” noted the head of AI strategy for global IT and network engineering operations at a US technology company, who was left anonymous.

Cisco highlighted majority of the AI readiness debate has focused on GPUs, cloud platforms and data centre buildouts, while pressure on workplace networks has been underplayed.

Security
Beyond capacity, security is also emerging as a brake on AI scale. Respondents pointed to expanded attack surfaces, shadow AI activity, weak AI-driven traffic visibility and inconsistent policy enforcement as key challenges.

The report found 91% of UK businesses are adding security controls specifically to support new AI workloads. More than half of UK respondents added their current campus and branch security posture may be insufficient for next-generation AI workloads.

“The issue from a security standpoint is that it’s hard to create the guardrails for every possible AI tool that your organisation must use,” a US-based retail executive explained.

According to Cisco, AI is ultimately creating “fundamentally different operational environments”, making network modernisation “a prerequisite for operating and competing effectively in an AI-powered economy”.

The report surveyed more than 3,472 CIOs and technology leaders across 15 countries.

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Salesforce struck a deal to acquire AI customer service specialist Fin for around $3.6 billion, a move positioned as bolstering its ability to help companies quickly deploy agents across communications channels.

Fin’s main product is a customer support AI agent which uses its proprietary Apex model. It is marketed as resolving queries across numerous channels including live chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, Slack and over the phone.

Salesforce plans to use Fin’s offering to compliment its Agentforce platform.

It noted the combination of assets would provide fast “time-to-value options” for businesses, citing SMBs and those which “need to launch quickly, integrate with existing systems and deliver measurable outcomes” as likely customers.

The acquisition also brings Salesforce access to Fin’s experienced team and an “established global customer base of more than 30,000 companies”.

Salesforce chair and CEO Marc Benioff said Fin brings “proven agent technology, a deep commitment to customer success and an incredible AI team that will complement Agentforce with powerful service agent capabilities”.

Fin co-founder and CEO Eoghan McCabe enthused the deal as a “major win for consumers of the world”, adding the combination with Salesforce would enable it to deploy its products “far and wide at a rate far faster than we could have ever achieved on our own.”

The deal is subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions including potential customary price adjustments. It is expected to close in Salesforce’s Q4 2027 (the three months to end-January 2027).

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Num momento em que quase todos reconhecem a cloud como peça central das estratégias digitais, um novo estudo aponta uma contradição relevante: o investimento e a ambição em torno da IA estão a crescer mais depressa do que a maturidade tecnológica necessária para os suportar.

The post Apenas 14% das empresas estão preparadas para tirar máximo partido da cloud na era da IA appeared first on Tek Notícias.

SpaceX reportedly leased the full capacity of its Colossus 1 data centre to Anthropic after running into technical problems using the site for its own Grok AI workloads.

Bloomberg reported last week (12 June) the company planned to use Colossus 1, located in the US state of Tennessee, as part of a three-campus cluster to train its more advanced AI models, but latency issues emerged when the facility was linked with two other sites more than 10 miles away

Sources told the news site the problems were said to be worsened by older network infrastructure.

Bloomberg noted high-performance AI training depends on fast, low-latency links between compute sites, but bottlenecks can slow the wider cluster.

Rather than continue trying to resolve those constraints, SpaceX decided leasing the site to third parties would generate greater value and create an additional revenue stream.

The move comes as SpaceX pushes its data centre expansion as a key plank of its investor story following its acquisition of xAI earlier this year.

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