By SCM
Publication Date: 2026-10-22 15:00:00
Providing access to vetted and tested AI agents can boost employee productivity, but the need to control what they touch remains real, according to Srini Namineni, chief automation officer.
In this edition of CIO Reality Check, Namineni shared insights on his role and how he puts AI to work at the tech giant.
Namineni called the emergence of generative AI a “generational technology,” and made its deployment within Cisco part of the marching orders in his current position.
He has been with Cisco for eight years and became chief automation officer in September 2025, leading IT automation strategy and internal AI. That includes enterprise-wide autonomous agent deployment for the staff at Cisco, which he said informs how the company addresses pain points it sees in other enterprise IT ecosystems.
Keeping up with 100x engineers
Namineni said AI is a way to ramp up productivity to create 10x or even 100x engineers — the expectation that a rockstar developer can produce exponentially more…
