Cisco is positioning itself as a vendor-agnostic orchestration layer that connects competing AI models and agents, betting that an open approach can set it apart from rivals pushing proprietary ecosystems, according to an October 2026 report from CRN. The tech giant repeatedly stressed its support for third-party models, bring-your-own-LLM flexibility, and agent interoperability during WebexOne 2026 earlier this month. If the strategy works, partners won't need to pick a single AI winner, the company believes.
Cisco is backing the approach with support for third-party AI models and agents inside its Webex platform, including bring-your-own-LLM capabilities, agent-to-agent interoperability, and integrations with external AI providers rather than locking customers into a Cisco-only stack, the report states. The company's integration with Claude, OpenAI-related tools, and other assistants marks a shift in strategy for the tech giant. Cisco's willingness to work across competing platforms represents a departure from its longtime approach to the market that was evident until recently. The company has realized it must meet customers where they are, and the customer might be with a competitor.
"Cisco is going to be Switzerland when it comes to working with a lot of players," said Snorre Kjesbu, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Collaboration, according to the report. Cisco is already there in the collaboration space, pointing to the company's interoperability with competing vendors, and is thinking the same way on the agent side while pushing innovation at the same time. According to Joe Berger, vice president of digital experiences for longtime Cisco top partner World Wide Technology, "They're not going to win everything, but they can work with most of the vendors to supply components of it." Berger added that five years ago, being agnostic was a hard pill for Cisco to swallow, and now the company is winning more collaboration deals because it's working with Microsoft, Zoom, and Google.
Cisco said it doesn't want to own the underlying AI model and instead believes its opportunity lies in providing the networking, security, observability, and management layers that sit on top of multiple AI platforms. Customers right now are mixing and matching AI models, and because they aren't standardizing on one, the opportunity exists for an agnostic AI player, the report explains. The approach mirrors Cisco's Cloud Control agentic AI platform that became generally available earlier this year, which is going down the path of allowing control of third-party devices and wants to be the platform for all of it. Cisco could carve out a unique role for itself as a neutral AI platform because the tech giant isn't competing with the model vendors, giving partners the ability to build services around multiple models without betting their business on one.
The strategy could position Cisco to capture enterprise AI infrastructure business even as customers remain uncommitted to a single model provider. If customers continue prioritizing flexibility over vendor lock-in, Cisco's neutrality becomes a strategic advantage rather than a hedge. For partners navigating an unsettled AI landscape, the ability to deliver multi-vendor solutions without forcing clients into premature technology bets may prove more valuable than exclusive alignment with any single platform.