Cisco Live EMEA 2026 Recap

AI Innovation, New Skills Paths, and the Future of Certification

Last week, thousands of IT professionals, partners, and innovators gathered in Amsterdam for Cisco Live EMEA 2026—a flagship event showcasing Cisco’s newest technologies, learning pathways, and the future of AI powered transformation. This year’s event placed a major focus on artificial intelligence, underscoring Cisco’s commitment to enabling organizations to build secure, resilient, AI ready infrastructures.

While Cisco Live is always an engineering and networking milestone, 2026 stood out for its major training and certification announcements, particularly in the realm of AI, automation, and next generation skills development.

1. New AI Focused Courses & Learning Resources

Cisco unveiled several updates to its learning ecosystem designed to help technologists build deep AI capabilities. Cisco will continue investing heavily in guided content, instructor led programs, hands on labs, and certification aligned curricula supporting AI adoption and infrastructure modernization.

Key Highlights

• Expanded AI learning content enabling learners to gain the foundational and applied AI skills needed to manage AI powered IT environments.
• Integration of AI driven tools into existing courseware, including emerging topics in AI enhanced security, AI for IT operations (AIOps), and network automation using machine learning.
• New resources aligned to Cisco’s digital learning platform, providing self paced and instructor led pathways for AI upskilling for both individuals and enterprise teams.

These updates reflect Cisco’s direction to embed AI capabilities across its core platforms—including networking, cybersecurity, collaboration, and observability—and equip IT professionals to manage these evolving technologies.

2. Updates to Cisco Certifications (AI, Automation & Security)

Cisco shared updates to its certification ecosystem as part of its broader shift toward AI enabled architectures. Cisco's certification framework continues to evolve around the skills most in demand globally, reinforcing the requirement for hands on proficiency and continuous learning through recertification and learning credits.

What Changed This Year

• AI centric knowledge areas have been enhanced across certifications, especially in tracks tied to automation, DevNet, and cybersecurity—where AI is now integral to modern infrastructure design.
• Updated exam content aligns with the latest Cisco technologies, reflecting Cisco’s commitment to dynamic certification frameworks that evolve alongside industry innovation. Cisco’s official certification guidelines confirm that exam alignment remains essential for career progression, recertification, and multi domain specializations.
• Deeper integration with Cisco U., the digital learning platform, helping certification candidates accelerate learning with personalized content recommendations and enhanced learning analytics.

Cisco has embedded AI driven technologies and concepts into its major certification families, reflecting the reality that AI is no longer optional knowledge in the modern networking and security landscape.

3. Strengthening the Global Learning Ecosystem

Cisco emphasized its continued investment in digital learning experiences, including:

• Broader access to instructor led training and team based learning paths.
• More structured journeys for roles in networking, security, cloud, and automation.
• Expansion of integrated learning resources, events, and webinars targeting AI adoption across enterprise IT.

4. What This Means for Learners and Organizations

As AI continues reshaping infrastructure, cybersecurity, and automation, Cisco’s training and certification updates at Cisco Live EMEA 2026 highlight three forward looking trends:

AI is now foundational—not optional

Networking and security pros must understand AI powered tools, data flows, inference models, and automated workflows.

Certifications are evolving as fast as the technology

Cisco’s move to continuously update exam content ensures that certifications remain meaningful and aligned to real world architectures.

The skills gap is widening—and Cisco aims to close it

Cisco’s expanded training signals a commitment to developing the next generation of AI ready practitioners who can design, secure, and scale intelligent networks.

Final Thoughts

Cisco Live EMEA 2026 reinforced that AI is at the core of Cisco’s future vision. With AI focused learning content, updated certifications, and strengthened learning ecosystems, Cisco is empowering IT professionals to lead in an era defined by intelligence, automation, and secure digital transformation.

Continue Your AI Learning Journey

Want to dive deeper into Cisco’s rapidly expanding AI training landscape? Explore our in depth breakdown of the latest Cisco AI learning tracks and certifications. It’s the perfect next step for anyone looking to accelerate their skills in AI powered networking, security, and automation.

Read the full Cisco AI blog here

Unlock More Value with Global Knowledge’s Cisco Exclusives

Ready to take your Cisco learning journey even further? As a Global Knowledge customer, you gain access to exclusive Cisco benefits designed to accelerate certification, deepen technical expertise, and maximize your training investment.

A key component of this program is the Cisco Office Hours webinar series. These webinars can keep up-to-date with all the latest Cisco news and developments. During the live sessions, you can ask questions directly to Cisco experts, ensuring you stay informed and ahead in networking, security, and AI-driven innovation.

Contact our sales team to learn more about Cisco Exclusives and elevate your Cisco learning experience today.