Cisco's Jeetu Patel Warns AI Agents Are the Next Major Cybersecurity Threat as Developer Ranks Could Surge to 3 Billion

Cisco's Jeetu Patel warns that AI agents are becoming a dangerous new cybersecurity threat as the developer population could explode from 150 million to 3 billion within a year, urging enterprises to prioritize trusted, governed AI access before nation-states and bad actors exploit autonomous agents at scale.

• Cisco President and CPO Jeetu Patel predicts the number of developers could explode from 150 million to 3 billion agent builders within a year, signaling a massive shift toward AI-driven enterprise environments.
• As nation-states and bad actors increasingly deploy autonomous agents at scale, traditional human-centered security models are breaking down, making AI agents a dangerous new attack surface.
• Patel argues that the key to thriving in the agentic era is not just granting AI agents access, but ensuring that access is trusted and governed, positioning cybersecurity as an accelerator rather than a barrier to innovation.