Cisco Live Amsterdam Tackles AI Policy Gap

Cisco Live EMEA 2026, running February 9–13 at Amsterdam RAI, is anchoring its government and public policy programming around a fireside chat titled "Leading the AI Revolution." The session pairs Nicole Isaac, VP of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs, with Nathan Jokel, SVP of Corporate Strategy and Alliances, to address the widening gap between what AI can do and what organizations are actually prepared to manage.

Registration closes February 6 at midnight CET. There's no onsite registration, but the event will livestream for remote viewers without a registration requirement.

What the Session Covers

The session (ITLGEN-2006) targets government officials and enterprise leaders who are navigating AI adoption under rising geopolitical pressure. According to the Cisco blog post announcing the session, the conversation will frame AI as "a new lever of national power, competitiveness, and strategic advantage" — language that reflects how governments in Europe and beyond have shifted from viewing AI as a research curiosity to treating it as a sovereign capability.

Topics on the table include digital sovereignty, supply chain resilience, energy demands of AI compute, talent pipeline shortfalls, and the regulatory environment shaping who can build and deploy AI at scale. Isaac and Jokel plan to outline Cisco's approach to responsible AI — emphasizing what they describe as a foundation of "innovation, partnership, trust."

Why the Timing Matters

The fireside chat lands in a week when Cisco has been especially active on AI and security strategy. Just yesterday, the company mapped out five domains of AI security in a taxonomy from its CISO and Distinguished Engineer Omar Santos. The same day, we covered Cisco's post-quantum cryptography roadmap, which tackles the "harvest now, decrypt later" threat that hangs over any long-term AI infrastructure investment.

And if you're attending as a developer, the Cisco Live EMEA developer track includes sessions on Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, Meraki's OAuth 2.0 transition, and AI-driven network automation — the technical plumbing that underpins the policy vision Isaac and Jokel will present.

The AI Readiness Problem in Numbers

The session will reference Cisco's AI Readiness Index 2025, and the data paints a blunt picture. Out of 8,000 surveyed IT and business leaders, only 13% of organizations qualify as "Pacesetters" — fully ready to deploy and scale AI. For everyone else, the obstacles are structural: 54% said their infrastructure can't scale for AI workloads, 81% admitted their data sits in silos, and just 15% described their networks as flexible enough to support new AI projects.

The gap between leaders and laggards is severe. Pacesetters are four times more likely to move AI pilots into production and 50% more likely to report measurable business value. On the revenue side, 92% of these top performers saw revenue increases tied to AI, compared to far lower rates among organizations still stuck in pilot mode.

Perhaps most telling for the policy audience: 83% of organizations plan to deploy AI agents, but only 31% say they're prepared to control and secure those agentic systems. For government leaders debating regulation, that's the number that should keep them up at night.

The Bigger Picture at Cisco Live

Beyond the policy session, the five-day Cisco Live EMEA program includes over 300 technical sessions, hands-on labs, and keynotes from Jeetu Patel (President and Chief Product Officer), Gordon Thomson (EMEA President), and Adele Trombetta (SVP and GM, Customer Experience EMEA). Guest keynote speakers include Ralf Huebenthal, Global Head of IT Platforms at Nestlé, and Enrique Uriel, CIO at Real Madrid.

The event also features Cisco's AI-powered session assistant, which generates personalized schedule recommendations based on registration preferences — a fitting detail for a conference centered on practical AI deployment.

What to Watch For

The real test for this session will be specificity. Government and enterprise leaders have heard plenty about AI's transformative potential. What they need now is guidance on concrete problems: how to fund AI-ready infrastructure when budgets are flat, how to recruit and retain talent when every sector is competing for the same people, and how to write regulation that doesn't freeze innovation while still providing guardrails.

Isaac's policy background and Jokel's strategy role should position them to address both sides. But whether the discussion moves past talking points into actionable frameworks — especially around digital sovereignty and supply chain security — will determine its value for the security-focused attendees in the room.

For those following hacking news and broader industry developments, the Amsterdam event provides a concentrated view of where Cisco is placing its bets across AI, security, and infrastructure heading into 2026.