Cisco’s results rebound with AI, but hybrid realities will set pace in Southeast Asia

Omdia view

Summary

Cisco closed FY25 with a strong rebound, posting double-digit growth and reinforcing its position in AI-driven networking and collaboration. At Cisco Connect Singapore, the company showed how AI and observability are being built directly into its networking portfolio. At the same time, a separate analyst-focused session highlighted how Cisco is extending collaboration beyond meetings and calls to encompass the full workplace experience—from AI-powered customer interactions to smart, energy-efficient offices. The company’s innovation agenda is clear, but its ability to scale adoption will pivot on partner enablement and addressing hybrid realities in Asia-Pacific, where regulated industries continue to require on-premises and hybrid deployments.

Cisco FY25 Q4 demonstrates strong momentum driven by AI-first networking

Cisco closed FY25 by posting 8% YoY growth in Q4, reversing a digestion period in the supply chain that dragged on FY24 results. Cisco highlighted growth across switching, Wi-Fi 7, routing, and industrial networking, and adoption on the platform accelerated, with approximately 37 million network devices connected and around 10 million ThousandEyes agents collecting observability data.

The company is positioning its portfolio around three outcomes: AI-ready data centers, future-proof workplaces, and digital resiliency. Innovations such as Agentic Ops and AI Canvas demonstrate Cisco’s commitment to simplifying network operations, enabling enterprises to create dashboards, automate troubleshooting, and collaborate in real-time.

Omdia believes the next step Cisco should take is to ensure these AI-driven capabilities reach mid-market and regional enterprises. Without strong partner enablement and customer education, adoption of these solutions risks being concentrated among flagship accounts rather than the broader enterprise base. Cisco should build laser-focused enablement programs for mid-market and regional partners—think plug-and-play onboarding and hands-on training, as well as localized support. In addition, Cisco should create focused customer education campaigns to address the specific challenges of smaller businesses and highlight relevant success stories. This messaging helps instill confidence and demonstrates tangible value propositions for partners. These efforts will help broaden the impact of AI-driven innovation across the entire enterprise ecosystem.

Cisco Connect Singapore enhances Cisco’s AI networking, security, and local heritage

During Cisco Connect 2025 Singapore, the company highlighted a converged framework that merges networking, security, and observability in Catalyst, Meraki, and ThousandEyes platforms. The strategy envisages simplifying operational complexity by introducing autonomy in AI-driven networks. A pivotal focus was also placed on security, emphasizing its integration into the network architecture as AI adoption grows, rather than adding it as an overlay. Cisco stressed the role of distributed enforcement points—placing security controls throughout the network instead of only at the perimeter—alongside Zero Trust models and enhanced observability. These elements were highlighted as key to helping enterprises manage identities, protect workloads, and maintain resiliency in highly regulated industries.

Cisco also showcased its robust partner enablement and training programs, such as the Partner 360 initiative, formal certifications, and continuous technical and sales training. These programs are designed to keep partners informed about Cisco’s innovations, improving partners’ ability to increase customer adoption and support these innovations across multiple markets. Cisco Connect coincided with Cisco’s 30th year in Singapore, underscoring the company’s long-standing role in supporting the country’s digital transformation journey—from foundational networking to Smart Nation initiatives—adding credibility to Singapore’s AI-first positioning.

Looking ahead, Omdia believes Cisco’s challenge lies in executing these innovation themes at scale: driving practical adoption through stronger local partner training, financing options, and vertical-specific solutions tailored to diverse maturity levels across Southeast Asia.

Collaboration evolves into workplace experience

An analyst-focused briefing positioned collaboration as central to Cisco’s workplace strategy. Cisco demonstrated how its AI assistant, embedded across meetings, calling, messaging, and contact centers automates tasks such as scheduling, note-taking, and call summarization.

Cisco differentiates itself from other collaboration solution vendors by integrating its hardware, software, and networking infrastructure within the workplace. While UCaaS competitors such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom dominate through software ecosystems, Cisco’s collaboration devices integrate AI into workspaces, supporting not only its own Webex platform but also multiple platforms across Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, and others. AI-powered noise-cancelling microphones, AI-powered PTZ cameras with automatic speaker tracking and framing, as well as real-time translations, deliver meeting equity.

With NVIDIA chips and sensors embedded, these AI-powered devices bring data and analytics to Cisco’s Control Hub platform to enable IT and Workplace teams to make data-driven workplace optimization decisions. Cisco reports reducing its office footprint by 18–25% depending on the region, alongside cost savings of around 34% and workplace experience scores ranked in the global top 2% in Leesman surveys.

Cisco also extends collaboration into the smart building domain. Using Power-over-Ethernet systems and sensors, Cisco integrates lighting, HVAC, blinds, and environmental monitoring into the collaboration fabric. This approach improves energy efficiency and enables smarter meeting experiences. Cisco’s strength lies in its ability to combine collaboration and building automation into one platform, often alongside established building management vendors such as Honeywell, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Johnson Controls, Huawei, and ABB. While these incumbents are key ecosystem partners, they also shape customer choices and investment priorities, creating a cooperative dynamic. In Southeast Asia, Cisco’s footprint remains modest, leaving room for expansion through deeper engagement in the ecosystem.

Omdia also sees an untapped opportunity for Cisco in the enterprise surveillance market. Cisco’s video portfolio today is primarily confined to Meraki cameras, positioned in the mid-market. Larger enterprises in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and government have the budgets and compliance needs for advanced CCTV and analytics. Expanding beyond Meraki could allow Cisco to integrate surveillance deeper into its collaboration, security, and observability platforms, while competing directly against incumbents such as Axis, Verkada, Hikvision, Avigilon, Honeywell, and Bosch.

Competitive dynamics in telco channels

Despite Cisco’s innovation, Microsoft Teams and Copilot dominate telco bundles. According to Omdia’s SME Bundle Tracker (tracking 41 operators semi-annually), the vast majority of operators resell Microsoft Teams or Copilot, while Webex by Cisco remains far less visible.

Cisco has promoted an open ecosystem since launching Webex App Hub and Webex for Developers in 2020. However, in telco channels, this has still created a perception of slower responsiveness to market needs, especially as Microsoft Teams gained ubiquity during the pandemic by being pre-installed on laptops and bundled with Microsoft’s productivity suites. The broader competitive gap was also driven by Microsoft’s stronger telco partnerships and ability to embed Teams as the default collaboration layer. By contrast, telcos have often positioned Webex more narrowly around calling services.

Cisco’s strategy now is to differentiate by integrating collaboration with devices and smart workplace infrastructure, positioning itself as a premium alternative rather than competing head-on with Microsoft. Beyond collaboration, Cisco also emphasizes its broader strengths across networking, security, and observability—four pillars it views as fundamental to enabling hybrid work and AI-driven experiences. Accelerating visibility and openness within telco resale channels will remain critical if Cisco wants to re-establish stronger relevance.

Hybrid adoption will chart the market’s course

Despite Cisco’s compelling demonstrations, market realities in the Asia-Pacific region remain nuanced. While cloud has strong momentum, Omdia perceives that on-premises and hybrid collaboration deployments remain significant in the APAC region, particularly in regulated industries such as healthcare, government, and energy. These industries demand control, compliance, and continuity, making fully cloud-based solutions less viable in the near future.

Omdia believes Cisco must frame hybrid deployment not as a fallback, but as a strategic approach that blends innovation with regulatory resilience. This strategy positions Cisco between full-cloud providers and legacy UC vendors such as Mitel and Avaya, who both emphasize hybrid paths.

Ultimately, Cisco enters FY26 with a strong AI-first narrative anchoring networking, collaboration, and smart workplaces. Its long-term presence in Singapore reinforces regional credibility. Yet, success depends on accelerating partner readiness, broadening ecosystem openness (especially via telcos), and delivering hybrid, enterprise-grade solutions tailored to mission-critical sectors in Southeast Asia.

Appendix

Further reading

“Cisco brings together identity, networking, and security with Identity Intelligence” (February 2024)

SME Service Provider Bundle Tracker – 2H24 Data (Jun 2025)

SME Service Provider Bundle Tracker – 2H24 Analysis (July 2025)

Cisco reports fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 earnings, Cisco News Details (retrieved August 24, 2025)

Author

Hwee Xian Tan, Senior Analyst, Telco B2B Strategies

[email protected]