The Internet of Agents and What It Means for Enterprise Leaders - with Vijoy Pandey of Outshift by Cisco (32 min)
ai-driven-innovation-economy ai-for-personalized-medicine ai-governance-laws ai-in-everyday-life ai-in-workforce-disruption ai-investment-trends
- Release date: 2026-02-05
- Listen on Spotify: Open episode
- Episode description:
Today's guest is Vijoy Pandey, Special Vice President and General Manager for Outshift by Cisco. Vijoy leads Cisco's internal incubation and strategy efforts focused on emerging technologies, platform development, and reducing technology and market risk as new capabilities move toward enterprise adoption. Vijoy joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss how enterprises are shifting from deterministic systems to probabilistic, agent-driven architectures, and what that means for interoperability, governance, and deploying AI safely at scale. Vijoy also shares practical takeaways on building multi-agent workflows, implementing task- and transaction-based access control, and using simulation and validation layers to reduce operational risk and improve ROI in regulated and mission-critical environments. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast! This episode is sponsored by Outshift by Cisco. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.
Summary
- 🔄 Paradigm Shift: Agentic AI moves enterprises from deterministic to probabilistic computing, enabling human-like, machine-speed collaboration for subjective tasks.
- 🛡️ Zero Trust Evolution: Task/transaction-based access controls are crucial as agents amplify security risks, replacing outdated role-based models.
- 🤝 Multi-Agent Platforms: Discovery, identity, collaboration, and evaluation pillars enable interoperable ‘Internet of Agents’ for business outcomes.
- 🏥 Healthcare Proof Point: Agents streamline patient routing via diagnosis and insurance workflows, showcasing real ROI in regulated industries.
- 📈 Preparation Roadmap: Catalog agents, enforce granular access, and build multimodal comms to integrate humans with scaled agent teams.
Insights
How is agentic AI driving a paradigm shift from deterministic to probabilistic computing in enterprises?
Time: 3:51 – 5:28
Category: AI-Driven Innovation EconomyAnswer: Agentic AI introduces probabilistic computing where systems handle subjective, natural language tasks like finding the ‘best’ flight, blending human-like reasoning with machine speed and scale. This shift enables software to operate more like human teams, collaborating as subject matter experts to deliver business outcomes. (Start at 3:51)
What four pillars must enterprises address to enable effective multi-agent collaboration?
Time: 6:04 – 6:36
Category: AI Governance & LawsAnswer: Enterprises face challenges in agent discovery, identity and access control, collaboration platforms, and outcome evaluation, similar to assembling a movie production team of specialists. These pillars are essential for scaling agentic systems safely across vendors and legacy infrastructure. (Start at 6:04)
Why do traditional role-based access controls fail in the agentic AI era, and how should zero trust evolve?
Time: 10:53 – 13:36
Category: AI Governance & LawsAnswer: Agents operate at machine speed and can rapidly switch identities, amplifying risks from broken access control, the top enterprise security issue per recent studies. Zero trust must shift to granular, task/tool/transaction-based controls that elevate and revoke privileges instantly. (Start at 10:53)
How does Outshift by Cisco de-risk agentic AI adoption for large enterprises?
Time: 15:01 – 17:37
Category: AI Investment TrendsAnswer: As Cisco’s incubator, Outshift mitigates technology and market risks for emerging tech like agentic AI, proving product-market fit before scaling to platform-level integration. This approach helps enterprises move from pilots to pervasive use by addressing unsolved challenges in real-world applications. (Start at 15:01)
How do multi-agent workflows transform healthcare patient routing and scheduling?
Time: 19:26 – 21:07
Category: AI for Personalized Medicine, AI in Everyday LifeAnswer: In a hospital contact center, agents for conversation, diagnosis, and insurance collaborate autonomously with humans to route patients accurately, booking appointments efficiently. This demonstrates the Internet of Agents enabling interoperable, outcome-driven automation in regulated sectors. (Start at 19:26)
What infrastructure is needed for humans and agents to coexist in future enterprise teams?
Time: 23:44 – 26:26
Category: AI in Workforce DisruptionAnswer: Enterprises must build agent catalogs for discovery by capability and reputation, implement task-based access controls, and enable multimodal (text, video, audio) communication platforms for real-time collaboration. This prepares for societies where hundreds of agents augment each human worker. (Start at 23:44)