San Jose, Calif. – September 23, 2026 -- Cisco and Omdia research finds that 95% of enterprises say their existing AIOps tools cannot keep pace with current network demands, while more than half have already shifted to AgenticOps, where AI agents act autonomously in production network environments.
Daily alert volumes have outpaced human capacity to respond
The average organization generates about 4,100 monitoring alerts and events daily, more than half of them network related. Clearing that backlog manually would require roughly 100 IT specialists. Nearly half of network alerts are closed without investigation, and a similar share of investigation time is spent chasing false positives.
Enterprises have moved from advisory AI to autonomous production agents
The survey of 1,000 IT and network operations leaders at organizations with 500 or more employees, conducted independently by Omdia, found 75% have already deployed AI for NetOps and 51% now run agentic AI systems that act in production. Agents are taking on tasks including rerouting traffic, adjusting wireless parameters, isolating suspicious endpoints, and resolving incidents end to end without prior human approval.
Comfort with full autonomy is rising fast
Eighty percent of respondents are comfortable granting AI a high or fully autonomous role in NetOps, including 24% who would accept AI acting with no human oversight at all. Eighty-two percent are comfortable allowing AI to make at least some production network changes without prior approval, and 84% expect an AI-led operating model within 12 months.
AI traffic growth is compounding network complexity
Cisco analysis of aggregated direct-to-AI network telemetry shows AI traffic is on a trajectory to double every six months. Cisco testing found that tasks performed by agents can generate up to 450% more total network traffic than equivalent human-driven tasks. Ninety-two percent of respondents report that performance issues commonly span multiple domains, requiring correlation across ten or more tools for resolution, while 57% say their current change processes cannot match the speed required today.
Trust and visibility are the conditions for scaling autonomy
Eighty-six percent of respondents say a single integrated platform, rather than another point tool, is the most effective path forward for scaling agentic operations. Sixty-nine percent require detailed explainability for agent-driven actions, and 36% say full observability -- including detailed tracing, summarized rationale, and post-action audits -- is the minimum acceptable standard.
"Agentic AI represents a fundamental paradigm shift: moving from running operations to orchestrating intent," said Joe Vaccaro, SVP/GM, Network Platform & Assurance at Cisco. Jim Frey, Chief Analyst, Network and IT Operations at Omdia, said the shift from advisory AIOps to action-taking AgenticOps is accelerating, making integrated visibility and governance critical to expanding autonomy while maintaining control.