At WebexOne, Cisco’s Jeetu Patel argues the agent era will be won on context, cost and control

What happened

UPDATED 22:25 EDT / OCTOBER 07 2026 INFRA At WebexOne, Cisco’s Jeetu Patel argues the agent era will be won on context, cost and control GUEST COLUMN by Zeus Kerravala For as long as Cisco Systems Inc . For as long as Cisco Systems Inc. Cisco is an infrastructure platform and telecommunications company based in San Jose.

has held its WebexOne event, the show has aimed to drive thought leadership in the collaboration industry. This year, with artificial intelligence on tap, it had its fair share of unified communications and contact center.

But more importantly, it was somewhat of a coming-out party for the “new Cisco,” which consolidated much of its historically sprawling portfolio into a single AI platform, with Webex as the place where people and agents meet. The “One Cisco” story has been shared at Cisco Live and other events over the past year, but for many Webex buyers, this is their first exposure to it at this depth. The underlying message was consistent with other presentations from Patel: If agents run everywhere, someone has to build and secure the infrastructure beneath them.