Just like your old maths teacher, Cisco’s test for autonomous network agents is to show their working | iTWire

Cisco executive Joe Vaccaro says AI agents need to demonstrate the evidence behind a proposed fix and operate within established procedures. For network engineers, that makes documenting their own expertise increasingly valuable.

Before an AI agent is trusted to change a production network, Joe Vaccaro wants it to satisfy a requirement familiar to any teacher: show the work behind the answer.

Speaking with iTWire at Cisco Live in Melbourne, Cisco’s senior vice president and general manager of network platform and assurance describes trust as something that must be established throughout an agent’s work.

Operators need to understand which signals led to a diagnosis, what evidence supports the proposed cause, and why the selected workflow is appropriate. A plausible recommendation is helpful, but it’s really only the beginning when the next step could affect a working network. You absolutely must have trust to let the agent go further.

Vaccaro says customers are already…