Cisco Crosswork Multi-Agentic AI Framework At-a-Glance
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The shift to AI-powered autonomous networks for enhanced efficiency and resiliency
Service providers and enterprises are facing a perfect storm, driven by the convergence of three powerful forces. First, networks have grown exponentially more complex, with increasing scale, diverse technologies, multivendor environments, and mounting technical debt. Second, end-user expectations are at an all-time high, fueled by our deep reliance on always-on, high-performing connectivity. Third, the workforce available to manage these networks is not keeping up with demand. OpEx pressures and a competitive environment for talent create challenges in attracting and retaining skilled professionals. This convergence has created an almost unsustainable situation—one that demands we rethink our approach and deploy automation at a scale and with capabilities never seen before. This is the promise of the autonomous network.
Autonomy marks a fundamental shift in network operations—from predefined, manual workflows to intelligent, adaptive systems. At the heart of this shift is AI, enabling networks to become self-healing, self-optimizing, and self-evolving. Autonomous networks use advanced automation and AI to interpret complex data, understand operational context, and make faster, more accurate decisions with minimal human intervention. For service providers, this means greater simplicity, operational efficiency, and a dramatically improved customer experience—powered by predictive and prescriptive AI at every layer of the network.
Cisco Crosswork Network Automation: Multi-agentic Framework Benefits
● Improved reliability and cost efficiency: Using Toxic Factor Identification, AI agents pinpoint harmful network patterns that avert failures. This capability reduces downtime, enhances reliability, and lowers operational costs.
● Proactive issue resolution: Cisco’s new multi-agentic AI framework, available within Cisco Crosswork Network Automation® applications helps minimize network issues and reduce incidents and complexity.
● Enhanced service quality and fewer outages: Configuration Drift Detection uses AI to identify network and configuration anomalies and helps avoid outages while delivering quality SLAs.
Accelerate operational efficiency and decision making through agentic AI
Cisco has developed a new multi-agentic AI framework, available with Cisco Crosswork Network Automation to power its growing portfolio of intelligent features and capabilities. This framework creates a flexible environment where AI agents can be built, deployed, and linked together to address complex problems and key customer use cases—underscoring its true multi-agentic nature. These capabilities are delivered through the Cisco AI Assistant and as embedded features within existing automation tools and applications. A standout feature of this framework is its ability to federate data—it can work seamlessly with data across Cisco, customer, and third-party tools, wherever that data resides. Additionally, a Software Development Kit (SDK) will be available to enable 3rd party providers to create their own AI agents and tailored use cases.
The first wave of AI skills focuses on identifying toxic patterns that cause widespread network failures and downtime, as well as detecting configuration drift that can lead to service disruption. These capabilities leverage AI/ML to uncover root causes before issues escalate. For instance, with Toxic Factor Identification, AI agents help identify toxic network patterns that contribute to multiple types of failures, and leverage preventive AI to improve network reliability and reduce downtime and cost. With Configuration Drift Detection, AI agents detect network configuration errors and anomalies and use AI to deliver preventive insights and remediation, proactively reducing outages and improving overall service quality.
The framework operates by distributing tasks across specialized AI agents that work together to solve a problem, enabling faster execution and continuous innovation. Its modular architecture supports rapid integration of new capabilities and seamless updates. With consensus-based decision making and built-in resiliency, the system also supports autonomous self-healing, reducing manual intervention and helping service providers achieve greater agility and uptime.
This multi-agentic framework marks an important milestone in Cisco’s vision toward autonomous networks. It paves the way for service providers and enterprises to accelerate their journey toward full autonomy—powered by intelligent AI agents, AI service factories, and deep, data-driven insights. More innovations are on the horizon as Cisco continues to lead the charge in AI-driven network automation and transformation.
Continue to boost network resilience and deliver superior customer experiences while staying ahead in an increasingly AI-native competitive landscape. For more information, visit Cisco Crosswork Network Automation or contact your sales representative.