Swisscom and Outshift team up to build agentic AI-enabled networks

When Swisscom's network engineers make changes to their infrastructure, they face a common challenge: How can you update systems that serve millions of customers without disrupting a service? A configuration that looks fine on paper can sometimes cause unexpected problems or downtimes when deploying—an experience no one wants for their customers.

This is why Swisscom, Switzerland's largest telecom provider with over 6 million mobile customers and 10,000 antenna sites, is partnering with Outshift by Cisco. Together, we aim to develop practical applications of AI agents in network operations to redefine customer experiences.

For Swisscom, this collaboration represents an opportunity to take their commitment to their customers to the next level. According to Swisscom CTO Mark Düsener, 

“The goal of getting into an agentic AI world, operating networks, and connectivity is all about reducing the impact of service changes, reducing the risk of downtime and costs—therefore leveling up our customer experience." 

This partnership is a testament to what happens when two dynamic organizations—each at the forefront of technology and innovation, join forces to solve an industry challenge using AI to deliver meaningful results for both the company and the customer.  

Meeting customer needs through AI innovation 

For Swisscom, this collaboration represents an opportunity to take their commitment to customers to the next level. According to Swisscom CTO Mark Düsener, “The goal of getting into an agentic AI world, operating networks, and connectivity is all about reducing the impact of service changes, reducing the risk of downtime and costs—therefore leveling up our customer experience."

The Outshift team is focused on incubating agentic AI solutions, particularly the Internet of Agents, that accelerate Cisco's networking strengths with its customers, and so matching the motivations of Swisscom presented a great opportunity to, as our mission outlines, "turn ideas into market reality." 

"Working with Swisscom is an ideal scenario for us, as we want to tailor our product incubations to what the customer needs right now in order to take advantage of advancements like agentic AI in a practical and impactful way," says Vijoy Pandey, SVP of Outshift.  

But making AI agents work effectively requires something new: an infrastructure that lets them communicate and work together securely. The work Outshift is doing on the Internet of Agents is leading the way to ensure state-of-the-art, agent-agent collaboration and interoperability make the design even more successful and future-proofed than what’s possible with AI agent workflows today. 

Why AI agents need a new kind of network

Today's networks were built for sharing data between humans and systems. But AI agents work differently—they need to share complex information with each other, make decisions together, and take coordinated actions in real-time. Think of a team of network specialists, each bringing different expertise: one agent monitoring security, another optimizing performance, and a third managing configuration changes. They need to work together seamlessly to manage network operations.

Our project goals 

Outshift and Swisscom have already set the groundwork for a project that will bring agentic-enabled network development and operations to the industry. Some key focus areas for the collaboration include:

1. Reduce Service Change Costs 

   By automating critical processes using agentic AI, we aim to lower the operational overhead often associated with network transformations. 

2. Minimize Risks and Downtime 

   Building infrastructure that can anticipate and adapt to changes means fewer disruptions for both businesses and their customers, resulting in increased agility and resiliency. 

3. Enhance Customer Experiences 

   Ultimately, this partnership is about people. By improving network reliability and service quality, customers are empowered with seamless, frustration-free experiences. 

   Düsener explains, “We are working towards a vision of a network domain in which engineers can trust AI and AI agents to reduce impact and run the network operations competently, allowing them to work in a more forward-looking capacity, focusing on improving design, process, and customer experience."

Knowing where to invest 

According to Cisco's 2024 AI Readiness index, AI is a priority spend for IT budgets, yet close to half of companies say AI implementations have fallen short of expectations across top priorities. 

Notes Pandey, "One key finding from our research and development in agentic AI is that it is especially difficult for organizations to identify the right starting point for investment, as well as stay hyper-focused on delivering a timely proof point for ROI that, in turn, motivates further investment. Getting the right expertise, domain knowledge, and strategy in place all at once, then sticking to that, is the key." 

These factors have been at the center of planning the specifics of the partnership 

“There are two key ingredients in achieving AI transformation for a business,” shares Düsener, “Expertise in data and AI connected to domain expertise. Swisscom and Outshift teams each bring a depth of experience in data, AI, networking, and diagnostics from their own perspective, and are bringing these together for a truly differentiated approach." 

And innovation thrives not just on expertise but also on trust and collaboration. Düsener underscores the collaborative spirit of this partnership, calling it “a partnership, not a supplier-ship.” The key, he notes, is starting by sharing problems and then planning how to tackle them together. The result? “Developing something better together than we could on our own." 

Pandey agrees: "We want to build these solutions with a transformation-focused partner like Swisscom, grounding the projects in real-world applications that accelerate the time-to-value of agentic AI investment.” 

Building ahead

From improving network operations to delivering unmatched customer experiences, this is just the beginning. As we develop this exciting new project, we aim to continue to share our findings and experience to further the field overall.

For other companies interested in similar projects, Pandey offers this advice: "Focus on finding a specific starting point that can show clear value for the business and the customer. The hardest part is often knowing where to invest for that first proof point when you're working with new technology."

• Learn more about Swisscom
• Learn more about Outshift’s Internet of Agents