Cisco and Mistral AI Partner to Deliver on Cisco's Mission to Transform the Customer Experience with AI

Rhea-AI Summary

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) has announced its first jointly developed AI Agent with Mistral AI, focusing on enhancing customer experience. The AI Renewals Agent streamlines the renewal proposal creation process by analyzing data from over 50 sources, providing real-time sentiment analysis, and delivering personalized recommendations.

The solution operates on-premises to ensure data security and privacy, with an estimated 20% reduction in time spent building renewal proposals and preparing for customer engagements. This efficiency is expected to improve as the AI agent learns from usage and more workflows are automated.

This partnership represents a significant step in Cisco's vision to deliver personalized, proactive, and predictive customer experiences through AI implementation. The AI Renewals Agent combines Cisco's extensive data set and customer trust with Mistral AI's technology to enhance customer and employee engagement.

Positive

• 20% reduction in time for renewal proposal creation and customer engagement preparation
• Integration of data from 50+ sources for enhanced decision-making
• On-premises deployment ensuring data security and cost optimization
• Potential for increased efficiency as AI system learns and evolves

Negative

• None.

Insights

AI Technology Analyst

The strategic partnership between Cisco and Mistral AI marks a pivotal advancement in enterprise AI implementation, particularly noteworthy given Mistral's rising prominence in the AI landscape. The choice of an on-premises deployment model for the AI Renewals Agent is especially significant, addressing critical enterprise concerns about data sovereignty and security while potentially offering Cisco a competitive edge in the enterprise AI market.

The AI Renewals Agent's integration of over 50 data sources demonstrates sophisticated data orchestration capabilities. While the initial 20% time reduction in proposal creation might seem modest, the real value proposition extends beyond mere efficiency gains. The system's ability to provide real-time sentiment analysis and personalized recommendations positions Cisco to enhance customer retention and lifetime value - critical metrics for enterprise software providers.

The strategic implications are substantial:

• By developing custom AI models rather than relying on general-purpose solutions, Cisco is building proprietary AI capabilities that could create significant competitive moats
• The on-premises deployment strategy allows for better performance tuning and cost optimization, addressing key enterprise concerns about AI implementation costs
• The focus on renewals automation targets a critical revenue stream, as renewal rates directly impact recurring revenue and customer lifetime value

This partnership signals Cisco's evolution from a traditional networking company to an AI-enabled enterprise solutions provider, potentially expanding its total addressable market and strengthening its competitive position against both traditional competitors and new AI-first enterprises.

First Jointly Developed AI Agent Helps Customers Maximize Cisco Investments and Boosts Productivity  

News Summary:

• Powerful Partnership: The first of several AI agents being developed by Cisco with Mistral AI as a strategic technology partner, to help drive Cisco's Customer Experience (CX) move towards an Agentic-AI-Led future.
• AI-Powered Efficiency: The AI Renewals Agent streamlines and enhances the creation process for Cisco's Renewals team by analyzing data from 50 sources to build custom proposals tied to customer outcomes.
• Strategic On-Premises Deployment: Custom AI model ensures data security, privacy, and compliance, while also enabling performance tuning and cost optimization.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 10, 2025  /PRNewswire/ -- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in security and networking, today announced the first, jointly developed AI Agent from its strategic partnership with Mistral AI, one of Europe's leading providers of AI solutions. The AI Renewals Agent greatly enhances and streamlines the renewal proposal creation process at Cisco by consolidating both structured and unstructured data from over 50 signals and sources and providing real-time sentiment analysis, summarized recommendations, intelligent automation, and personalization, all tied to customer outcomes and key performance indicators (KPIs).  

By automating tasks and optimizing workflows, the AI Renewals Agent enables strategic focus and customer engagement, enhancing satisfaction and retention, and driving growth. Built using a custom AI model, the solution operates on-premises, ensuring data security, privacy, and compliance as well as empowering performance tuning and cost optimizations. It is estimated that the AI Renewal Agent could reduce the time spent building a renewal proposal and preparing for a customer engagement by as much as 20%, a figure poised to grow as the AI agent improves based on usage and more workflows are automated.

The new agent is the latest AI innovation for Cisco's Customer Experience (CX) organization and continues to demonstrate how Cisco is delivering against its vision of using AI to make every customer experience personalized, proactive and predictive, and delivering unique outcomes that exceed customers' expectations.

"Mistral AI is a critical partner for Cisco Customer Experience (CX) as we build towards an Agentic-AI-Led future," said Liz Centoni, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Experience Officer, Cisco. "In addition to cutting-edge AI technology, Mistral AI shares our mission to put the customer at the center of everything we do. The AI Renewals Agent is an important milestone and the first of many innovative solutions that we're going to build together. The impact on our teams is also significant as we continue to look at opportunities to simplify and reduce friction in their jobs. By combining our large data set, customer trust and Mistral's industry-leading technology, we are on our way towards shaping the future of customer and employee engagement."

"This announcement marks another significant milestone in our strategic partnership with Cisco," said Arthur Mensch, CEO, Mistral AI. "It demonstrates how GenAI can enhance access to rich and complex information sources, deliver critical value to Cisco's customers and ecosystem, and save considerable time for all stakeholders involved. This achievement has been made possible thanks to the exceptional talent of Cisco's engineering teams."

Additional Resources

• Cisco Customer Experience webpage

About Cisco 

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that is revolutionizing the way organizations connect and protect in the AI era. For more than 40 years, Cisco has securely connected the world. With its industry leading AI-powered solutions and services, Cisco enables its customers, partners and communities to unlock innovation, enhance productivity and strengthen digital resilience.  With purpose at its core, Cisco remains committed to creating a more connected and inclusive future for all. Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on X at @Cisco.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at http://www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word 'partner' does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

 

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SOURCE Cisco Systems, Inc.

FAQ

What is the expected time savings from Cisco's (CSCO) new AI Renewals Agent?

The AI Renewals Agent is expected to reduce the time spent building renewal proposals and preparing for customer engagements by 20%, with potential for further improvement as the system learns and more workflows are automated.

How many data sources does CSCO's new AI Renewals Agent analyze?

The AI Renewals Agent analyzes both structured and unstructured data from over 50 different signals and sources to create comprehensive renewal proposals.

What security measures are in place for CSCO's AI Renewals Agent?

The AI Renewals Agent operates on-premises using a custom AI model, ensuring data security, privacy, and compliance while enabling performance tuning and cost optimizations.

What are the main features of CSCO's new AI Renewals Agent with Mistral AI?

The AI Renewals Agent features real-time sentiment analysis, summarized recommendations, intelligent automation, and personalization capabilities, all tied to customer outcomes and KPIs.

How will CSCO's partnership with Mistral AI impact customer experience?

The partnership aims to deliver personalized, proactive, and predictive customer experiences through AI implementation, with the AI Renewals Agent being the first of several planned AI solutions.