Cisco touts 'Internet of Agents' for secure AI agent collaboration

AI-native agentic applications: This layer encompasses the full spectrum of agentic applications—from business workflow automation to scientific discovery to social interaction. Think of it like a movie production, where specialized teams (writers, actors, cinematographers, editors) collaborate to create something greater than any individual could achieve. Similarly, AI agents will specialize and collaborate across domains, from software development to drug discovery to embodied agentic robotic workflows, etc.

Agent communication platform: This layer provides the fundamental protocols and standards for how AI agents discover, authenticate, and interact with each other. Like TCP/IP for the original internet, these open standards must enable any agent to seamlessly participate in the network, regardless of its creator or purpose for both hardware and SaaS products.

AI and quantum-safe infrastructure: This foundational layer delivers the secure, scalable infrastructure that enables all AI agent interactions. It combines high-performance computing and networking with quantum-resistant security built in from the ground up. Through quantum networking capabilities and advanced security protocols, this layer ensures that agent communications remain protected against both current and future quantum threats. This proactive approach to quantum safety creates a trusted foundation for the entire agent ecosystem to build upon.

A major challenge with enabling open communications is that agents don’t talk via straightforward API, Pandey said. 

“Yes, they might use APIs in the back end, but the payload that is going between agents is highly probabilistic in nature. You’ll say things like, ‘find me the best x.’ What is best? It’s not a very well-defined thought. So, agent X might think best differently from agent Y, so probabilistic input and probabilistic output. So the agent might come back and say, ‘yes, this is the best x with 90% confidence.’ So there’s probabilistic input, probabilistic output,” Pandey said.

Multi-modal information is being exchanged, Pandey explained. “You’re exchanging not just APIs across the internet. You’re exchanging audio, video, texts, like science data, like protein folding data. You’re exchanging really massive sets of data between agents,” Pandey said.