Cisco Podcast Network

AI Insights - Ep.8 The AI Ergonomics Framework for Trustworthy LLMs

In this episode of The Cisco AI Insights Podcast, hosts Rafael Herrera and Sónia Marques are joined by Cisco’s Technical Leader in Machine Learning Engineering, Dr. Catarina Carvalho, to explore her pioneering concept of "AI Ergonomics," which frames human engagement as a fundamental design principle for AI development rather than a post-development chore. The conversation examines the complexities of human-in-the-loop validation, highlighting how moving beyond simple binary feedback like "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" is essential for mitigating bias and ensuring AI systems align with practical human needs and well-being. Dr. Carvalho explains how incorporating cognitive interviews and social motivation can improve data quality, helping developers bridge the gap between model accuracy and user trust in our increasingly non-deterministic generative AI landscape. Thank you to Dr. Catarina Carvalho for sharing her research and insights on the future of collaborative AI design. If you are interested in exploring her research and the principles behind AI ergonomics, please visit this link: https://github.com/catica/AI_ergonomics/blob/651ab17b3c8ba89d5dcc51ba2ebd1307e7262458/AI_ergonomics_.pdf

Cisco Optics Podcast Ep64: Building the Standards Behind Tomorrow’s AI Networks - John Calvin, Part 1 of 8

In the pluggable optics industry every next generation is led by countless presentations and proposals at standards bodies meetings along with lots of lab development and testing behind the scenes. Right now the industry has its sights set on 3.2 terabit transceivers with 400 Gb per electrical lane. All those meetings and all that testing are happening as we speak. Today I am joined by John Calvin, Strategic Planner and Datacom Technology Lead at Keysight. John has been bridging the measurement science gaps of emerging telecom and datacom development efforts for 20 years. He has chaired multiple physical layer interoperability working groups and is currently serving as a contributing member to IEEE 802.3, OIF-CEI, InfiniBand, and PCIe development efforts. John holds a BSEE from Washington State University, and his graduate level studies are in signal processing from Stanford University. In Episode 64 we begin a new conversation with John. We get into his path into Ethernet, how standards are built, and why they matter to AI networks. John has very generously made himself available for your follow-up questions. You can find him at IEEE 802.3 technical forums or you can email him at john.calvin@keysight.com. Please follow the Cisco Podcast Network on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! Better yet, leave a review on Apple podcasts. Remember you're listening to the Cisco Optics Podcast, which is part of the Cisco Podcast Network where you can find other great Cisco podcasts too. If you want to listen on a website, go to optics.podcastpage.io. We also have educational videos on youtube. Just go to youtube.com and search on Cisco Optics. Related links Cisco Optics-to-Device Compatibility Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/ Cisco Optics-to-Optics Interoperability Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/iop Cisco Optics Product Information: https://copi.cisco.com/ Additional resources Cisco Optics Podcast: https://optics.podcastpage.io/ Blog: https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/ciscoopticsblog Cisco Optics YouTube playlist: http://cs.co/9008BlQen Cisco Optics landing page: cisco.com/go/optics Intro music Music by Sergio Prosvirini from Pixabay Outro music Dreamers by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.com Royalty Free Music by https://www.free-stock-music.com

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Scaling AI: The Playbook for IT Services Delivery

Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) manages 1.4 million SRs annually, and today, 97% are touched by AI. As we shift from task-based automation to Agentic AI, some of these interactions are becoming "no-touch"—driving higher customer satisfaction and faster resolution. How did Cisco transform its Support at scale, and where is the IT services industry heading? In this episode of Scaling AI in the Enterprise, we focus on IT services delivery. Our panel shares advice on how to escape "pilot purgatory" and move into production, the critical necessity of a unified data strategy, and how to maintain deterministic outcomes in a probabilistic world. We discuss why observability is the new "central nervous system" for managing autonomous agents and why the path to success requires reinventing workflows—not just automating the status quo. Host: Wes Moss, VP, CX Centers Delivery for Americas, Cisco Guests: Bhaskar Jayakrishnan, SVP of Engineering, Cisco Customer Experience (CX) Buffy Ransom, GM & SVP, CX Centers, Cisco David Jansen, Distinguished Solution Engineer, Global Solutions Engineering (GSE), Cisco Learn more about Cisco Customer Experience; read our blogs and visit Cisco.com.

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404 Script Not Found Part 2! AI Deep Dive with Annie Hardy

Back for part two of our split episode with the founder of Split Futures, Annie Hardy and jump right in where we left off...getting practical about choosing the right AI model—because apparently not every task requires the AI equivalent of a Nobel Prize winner. Annie breaks down when to use smaller models, why bigger isn’t always better, and how those choices connect to energy, water use, and building a more sustainable future. The conversation then turns to the humans behind all this technology. Annie challenges leaders to look beyond layoffs and efficiency gains and ask a much better question: what could we build if we retrained and reinvested in people instead? Along the way, we cover AI subscriptions quietly taking over everyone’s bank account, the danger of lazy AI strategy, and whether asking Gemini to help your teenager quit band counts as responsible parenting—or just very efficient parenting. Give us a click, keep us funded! https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html

404 Script Not Found AI Deep Dive with Annie Hardy

Your company bought all the AI tools and now nobody knows what to do with them. Sound familiar? Kat and Ian sit down with Annie Hardy, founder and Chief AI Architect at Split Futures, to unpack why leaders aren't listening, why measuring employees by "lines of code" is quietly torching everything, and why Gen Z is somewhere between anxious, angry, and low-key sabotaging the robots. You'll learn how to actually pick the right AI model (spoiler: sometimes you need an intern, not a Nobel laureate), why every search might be gulping a water bottle, and Annie's genuinely useful Code of AI Ethics for people who just want to keep their brains intact. Also: national security plot twists, "lazy AI-augmented parenting" confessions, and more hot takes to come! If you liked this episode, as always give us a click! https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html

The evolution of good technology | Tech Unscripted

In this episode, industry leaders discuss how to redefine “good” technology today — weighing speed, agility and AI against security, ethics and human impact. Panelists share real examples, from digital avatars for pediatric care to network and industrial use cases, and explore how AI can enhance outcomes without replacing human judgment. The conversation highlights practical steps for bringing organizations along: training, transparency, governance and pragmatic pilots. The episode closes on a hopeful note about creative possibilities in healthcare and research while emphasizing the need for responsible, human-centered adoption.

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Cisco Tech Stories Season 4 Kickoff: Top Episodes & Wild Tech Tales

Episode 37 kicks off Cisco Tech Stories' fourth season with a highlights reel of the best episodes from the past three years. Hosts Nico and Tristan revisit standout interviews and mini‑series, sharing short snippets that cover troubleshooting adventures, accessibility and disability in networking, eBPF, quantum computing, CCIE stories, cruise‑ship deployments and more. Listeners get a concise tour of the podcast’s top picks, practical lessons from Cisco engineers, and an invitation to suggest future guests or topics.

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Scaling AI: Enterprise Requirements of Agentic AI

95% of enterprise IT leaders plan to launch agentic AI projects — but 69% aren't ready. So, what's standing in the way? In this episode of Scaling AI in the Enterprise, we bring together an expert panel to tackle the real engineering and organizational challenges of AI deployments: the probabilistic nature of AI agents, the limits of traditional testing, and why "making your prompt stronger" is not a strategy. Host: Eric Knipp, SVP and GM, Cisco Customer Experience (CX) Americas Guests: Bhaskar Jayakrishnan, SVP of Engineering, Cisco Customer Experience (CX) Dr. Lydia Chilton, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University Sam Charrington, Host of the TWIML AI Podcast Srini Namineni, SVP and Chief Automation Officer, Cisco Learn more about Cisco Customer Experience: read our blogs and visit Cisco.com

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Building Future-Proofed Workplaces with Jeetu Patel and Anurag Dhingra

Jeetu and Anurag Dhingra explore the transformation of physical infrastructure and intelligent software as the foundation for the workplace. As the nature of work continues to evolve, the demand for environments that are both seamless and secure has never been higher.

Shaping Cisco’s Portfolio Strategy with Jeetu Patel and Jeff Schultz

Jeff Schultz joins Jeetu Patel to delve into the evolution of the Cisco Portfolio and how this focus on critical business outcomes for the AI era is delivering real results for the ecosystem.

3. Cisco AI and Cisco Cloud Control with Jeetu Patel and DJ Sampath

3. Cisco AI and Cisco Cloud Control with Jeetu Patel and DJ Sampath by Cisco

4. Building AI-Ready Data Centers w Jeetu Patel, Tom Gillis, Kevin Wollenweber, and Will Eatherton

Jeetu, Tom Gillis, Kevin Wollenweber, and Will Eatherton discuss why the "AI revolution" is fundamentally a networking challenge and how Cisco has evolved its portfolio to serve as backbone for the next generation of enterprise intelligence. By aligning our networking, compute, and security innovations, we are providing our customers with the foundation they need to move from experimentation to production at scale.

Reimagining Cisco Security with Jeetu Patel and Peter Bailey

Reimagining Cisco Security with Jeetu Patel and Peter Bailey by Cisco

6. The Path to Digital Resilience with Jeetu Patel and Kamal Hathi on Digital Resilience

Jeetu Patel and Kamal Hathi dive into how the addition of Splunk to the Cisco family is about more than just portfolio expansion; it’s about providing our customers with the most comprehensive platform for security and observability in the industry. By breaking down the barriers between the network and the data that runs on it, our customers can operate with unprecedented speed, confidence, and clarity.

10. Observability in the Age of AI with Jeetu Patel, Atin Sanyal, and Yash Sheth

As enterprise environments become increasingly distributed and complex, the volume of telemetry data has outpaced human capacity to analyze it. This has been future compounded by the challenges of tokenomics. Jeetu Patel sits down with the founders of Galileo to discuss how we are moving beyond passive dashboards toward a future of autonomous, intelligent agents that can reason through system issues in real time.

7. The Evolution of Cisco’s Silicon Architecture with Jeetu Patel, Nick Kucharewski, and Mohammad Issa

Jeetu Patel, Nick, and Mohammad delve into our custom silicon strategy. While many see networking as a software-driven game, we discuss why many of the most significant breakthroughs are happening at the physical layer. We explore how Cisco’s unique approach to co-designing silicon alongside our software and systems portfolio is creating a level of performance and efficiency that simply cannot be achieved with off-the-shelf components.

8. The Opportunity and Challenge of Agentic Security with Jeetu Patel, DJ Sampath, and Matt Caulfield

Jeetu Patel, Matt Caufield and DJ Sampath tackle the shift toward a landscape where AI agents are no longer just assisting humans but are actively executing critical security tasks. As these agents take on more autonomy, the traditional pillars of cybersecurity, particularly identity, must undergo a radical evolution to ensure that our automated defenses remain both powerful and trustworthy.

9. Hyperscalers, NeoClouds, Sovereign Clouds, and Service Providers with Jeetu Patel and Guru Shenoy

Jeetu Patel and Guru Shenoy discuss the evolution of how Cisco is working with some of its largest and most innovative customers as they transform to address the challenges and opportunities of AI.

AI Insights - Ep.7 Building Better Memory for Smarter AI Agents

This month on The Cisco AI Insights Podcast, hosts Rafael Herrera and Sónia Marques are joined by Cisco software engineer João Costa to explore Andrej Karpathy’s GitHub Gist on the LLM wiki pattern concept. It imagines how Large Language Models can move beyond one-off chat sessions and help build a persistent, interconnected knowledge base that grows and improves over time. The conversation examines how an LLM wiki turns raw sources such as meeting transcripts, research papers, websites, and project notes into structured markdown pages with cross-links between related concepts, creating something closer to a living digital brain than a static document store. João explains how tools like Obsidian can provide a clear window into this knowledge graph, while the LLM acts as a scribe that summarizes, curates, connects, and updates information for personal productivity, software development, research, and collaborative work. The episode also highlights the importance of linting, the ongoing process of detecting contradictions, removing stale details, and reducing hallucinated information before it spreads through the wider knowledge base. A special thank you to Andrej Karpathy for developing and sharing his GitHub Gist. To explore the Gist yourself, visit this link: https://gist.github.com/karpathy/442a6bf555914893e9891c11519de94f

404 Script Not Found Resumes and Interviews

Welcome to another episode of 404 Script Not Found, where we start with sports betting, pivot to the emotional rollercoaster of a new fidget toy, and somehow land on the serious business of hiring. Ian and Kat dive into the wild world of corporate recruiting, where Ian admits he doesn’t read cover letters...Does anyone? We tackle the big questions: - Is it okay to use AI to write your resume? (Maybe, but don't be weird about it). - How do you handle an interview candidate who spends half the time talking about animal cruelty? (Hint: Don't be that guy). It’s a chaotic, honest, and surprisingly insightful look at how to get hired, how to hire, and how to survive the office without losing your mind. Join us for a deep dive into the human side of the job market, minus the corporate jargon. If you are interested in working at Cisco, check out the careers page: https://careers.cisco.com/global/en