Navigating the complexities of AI from strategy to deployment can be daunting. At Cisco, the marketing organization tackled this challenge head-on by designing a comprehensive enablement playbook. Born from our internal journey, it’s now transforming complex challenges into tangible, impactful solutions for our customers and partners — and it couldn’t be more timely.
Have you ever looked at AI and wondered, “Where do I even start?” The journey from dreaming up AI ideas to actually putting them into action is full of twists, turns, and often bumps in the road. That’s why I’m excited to share how we tackled this as a team.
As a senior leader within Marketing Revenue Operations (RevOps) at Cisco, I get a front-row seat to the inner workings of our marketing engine. My team manages everything from chat pop-ups you see on Cisco.com to the demo request forms that connect you with our experts. We’re also behind the scenes, making sure our sales teams have the right tools to help our customers.
years ago, our leadership asked a big question: “How are we going to bring AI into our business in a way that really moves the needle?” At the time, we were tinkering with prototypes to see what worked and what didn’t but scaling them up was tough. We needed more than just experimentation. We needed a real plan to turn ideas into impact quickly and safely.
Built on Cisco’s platform approach, we developed an enablement playbook for our marketing RevOps team—that helped move us from scattered experiments to a structured, unified strategy that leverages Cisco’s integrated technologies to accelerate innovation securely and at scale, so our innovation doesn’t get stuck in the lab.
Building structure into innovation
Rolling out AI at a company as big as Cisco isn’t easy. We realized that to really support our customers, partners, and employees, we had to get organized. Instead of chasing one-off projects, we built a comprehensiveflexible enablement playbook for our RevOps team —one that could guide both strategy and day-to-day execution—underpinned by collaboration across the company.
When I introduced this enablement playbook at Cisco Live in Las Vegas in 2024, it felt like an answer to a question I’d been hearing from colleagues everywhere: how do we enable AI securely and responsibly? Now, that playbook is helping us lead the way, not just internally, but as trusted advisors to customers and partners.
How does this fit in with Cisco’s Responsible AI Framework?
You might be wondering: “So, how is an enablement playbook different than the Cisco Responsible AI Framework, and why is this necessary?” The distinction is critical and here’s how I break it down:
- Cisco’s Responsible AI Framework: This is our ethical compass. It makes sure our AI is unbiased, transparent, and trustworthy. It is the core of our governance strategy.
- Policy: These are the laws and regulations we must follow depending on where we work and who we serve. Policy is about boundaries and what we can and can’t do.
- Governance: Sets the criteria and guardrails for enabling AI based on those policies. It helps us stay on track and ensures we follow the rules and keep things safe and secure.
- Our enablement playbook: This is the action plan. It puts all those ideas and rules into motion with clear processes from start to finish. If policy is the law and governance is the guardrail, enablement is the engine that gets you moving both safely and quickly.
What we focus on
- AI Strategy: The roadmap for success. You need a vision before you start driving.
- Accountability: Everyone plays a part. No passing the buck.
- AI Policies: Clear rules that keep us aligned with strategy and policy, hand in hand.
- Governance: The foundation for safe, responsible innovation.
- Data Classification & Privacy: Data is the fuel; privacy and security keep the engine clean.
- InfoSec Security & Trust: Zero trust—no shortcuts on security.
- AI Investment: Set clear goals and measure everything.
- Persona Experience: If people won’t use your AI, it’s just a science experiment.
- Use Cases & User Stories: Let data drive your decisions, both for what you build and how you measure success.
- Operationalization: This is where it all comes together—turning plans into real-world outcomes.
Every one of these domains matters. They help Cisco move from AI ideas to real, trusted solutions.
My biggest advice?
Figure out who owns each domain early and make sure they have the support and accountability to lead. In a company as big as Cisco, AI touches everything. AI is a team sport and it takes collaboration to win.
Bringing our domains to life: People, process, and platforms
- People: As a former high school football coach, I know that a playbook is useless without a team that can execute. At Cisco, we’re investing in our people. Over 50,000 employees have earned AI badges, and we’re running programs like “AI for Everyone” to make sure everyone is ready for the future. Our new “Edge Up” initiative is helping leaders share best practices and upskill their teams.
- Process: A strategy without a process is just a wish. Our executive leadership drives our AI governance, bringing together experts from legal, engineering, privacy, and more. Our enterprise, cross-functional AI Governance Intake process, helps make sure every new use case meets our Responsible AI standards.
- Platforms: Security is a non-negotiable. With our Cisco platform approach, we collaborate across IT and product teams to ensure our AI tools are safe, reliable, and high-performing—harnessing Cisco’s unified infrastructure and security capabilities Our leadership invests in a strong ecosystem—from AI platforms like PODS/NVIDIA and Splunk AI, to partnerships with OpenAI, Anthropic, and more.
What’s next?
Stay tuned! I’ll share real-world results: how our enablement playbook is helping the RevOps team within Cisco Marketing, our customers, and our partners win with AI—and the lessons you can use right now.
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