AI drives increase in network traffic, Cisco and Foundry find

Cisco and Foundry detailed a 34% average increase in campus and branch network traffic tied to AI workloads over the past 12 months due to the use of AI tools. The finding comes from more than 3,400 IT and networking decision-makers across 15 countries; results are in a report released Monday.

Nearly 7 in 10 respondents reported an increase in “east-west traffic,” i.e., device-to-device or server-to-server communication required for AI agents to exchange data. Six in 10 reported a rise in continuous automated traffic generated by AI systems. Organizations further along the AI adoption curve were more likely to report “traffic growth, operational complexity, security concerns and infrastructure-readiness challenges” versus those in earlier stages of adoption.

Nine in 10 respondents anticipate “significant increases” in generative AI traffic and 85% expect the same for agentic AI traffic over the next 12 to 24 months. Networks are usually “designed for…