In today’s rapidly shifting technology landscape, the integration of AI into mission-critical operations has changed the rules of the game. Every customer who I talk to is feeling the pressure; Their reality is defined by the need for continuous uptime, optimized performance, and enhanced resiliency. Support is no longer just a safety-net — it is a strategic imperative. A staggering 92% of organizations now assert that the support and services they receive are more critical than ever.[1]

Despite the relentless speed of change, many of our customers’ IT teams remain trapped in a cycle of manual, reactive firefighting, often oblivious to risks like aging hardware or security vulnerabilities until it is too late.

This is precisely why we built Cisco IQ.

Following the general availability of Cisco IQ for the SaaS deployment mode on April 24, 2026, partners and customers can now leverage these capabilities for their own internal operations. We are initiating additional Early Field Trials this quarter with select resale and partner branded partners to help them accelerate their ability to deliver predictive asset insights and adaptive infrastructure assessments for their customers. These trials serve as the foundation for the planned general availability for partners in Q1 FY27.

Intelligence That Elevates, Not Replaces, Partner Expertise

Cisco IQ is the AI-powered intelligence layer of Cisco Support that connects customers, partners, and Cisco, serving as the filter for the noise of complex IT environments. By combining over 40 years of Cisco’s codified expertise with telemetry, purchase history, and contract data, the platform turns signals into actionable insights. This empowers stakeholders to shift from a traditional, reactive, break-fix model to a proactive, predictive, and personalized experience.

What does it look like when Cisco IQ intelligence elevates the partner expertise?

• Instead of ”sell more licenses,” with Cisco IQ, every refresh cycle, vulnerability, and renewal timeline is surfaced automatically – long before issues become urgent.
• Instead of ”competing for renewals,” use intelligent insights to drive measurable results. By continuously proving your impact, the renewal becomes an automatic decision. 
• Instead of “replacing people with automation,” unlock the true value of your talent. Free your senior engineers from fighting fires to focus on driving high-margin services and deeper customer relationships.
• Instead of “manual discovery bottlenecks,” transform days of manual assessments into minutes of actionable intelligence – delivering operational outcomes faster and at scale.

Durable Growth Through Strategic Evolution

To truly capture the growth and profitability that Cisco IQ enables, partners must actively prepare. This means planning your operational shift to move beyond manual, reactive motions to building a lifecycle-focused strategy that uses predictive insights to enable proactive resilience so that you can stay ahead of customer needs. By aligning your sales, services, and customer teams to the insights provided in the Standard and Signature tiers of Cisco Support, you move from reactively supporting infrastructure to architecting proactive resilience and predictable performance – outcomes customers now demand – while building competitive differentiation on the strengths you have already invested in.

For example, by using Cisco IQ to automate tier-1 tasks (such as routine alert monitoring and basic ticket triage), you aren’t replacing human expertise, you’re amplifying it. This allows your senior engineers to spend less time and energy on “keeping the lights on,” while also increasing the consistency of every experience/interaction. With more time, your senior engineers can focus on delivering high-margin, complex lifecycle services that define your brand and keep your customers ahead of the curve.

Cisco IQ also serves as a powerful business development tool by allowing you to identify opportunities for complementary, value-added services. For instance, you can use the security hardening and configuration best practice insights from the Assessments feature to proactively propose and deliver specialized change management services to implement recommended improvements.

Join the Conversation

If you are attending Cisco Live, I invite you to join our session on The Partner Opportunity with Cisco IQ.

If you are a Cisco partner and you are unable to attend Cisco Live or want to learn more, visit Cisco Branded Services for Partners and CX On Message for Partners on SalesConnect.

Together, we can turn technical challenges into business success — building a more resilient, intelligent future for our customers while driving durable growth for both partners and Cisco.

[1] Cisco, The Race to an Agentic Future: How Agentic AI Will Transform Customer Experience, 2025