As AI reshapes job roles and automation redefines workflows, organizations are beneath stress to repeatedly construct, validate, and apply new expertise at scale. Most expertise pipelines merely can’t sustain: practically half of IT leaders already report {that a} lack of AI expertise is slowing progress.
At Be taught with Cisco, it’s our aim to make IT expertise accessible to everybody: from college students and entry-level professionals to consultants with years of expertise. So it’s extraordinarily gratifying to see that IDC MarketScape has positioned Cisco as a Chief within the 2025–2026 IDC MarketScape for IT Coaching Companies in North America and a Chief within the 2025 IDC MarketScape for IT Coaching Companies in Europe.
Thanks to everybody at Cisco and at our companions for making this recognition attainable. As AI adjustments the way in which we work, we’re extra dedicated than ever to offering entry to in-demand expertise to learners throughout the globe.
Studying as mission-critical infrastructure
“The arrival of AI and different rising applied sciences provides a brand new dimension of complexity to an ecosystem already burdened by widening IT expertise shortages,” in response to IDC MarketScape for North America IT Coaching Companies. The report continues: “IDC initiatives that by the top of subsequent 12 months, expertise shortages may price the worldwide financial system as much as US$5.5 trillion in misplaced income, product delays, high quality points, and impaired competitiveness.” Workforce growth is now not a nice-to-have. It’s foundational infrastructure for competitiveness in an AI-driven financial system.
At Cisco, we’ve all the time believed that expertise alone doesn’t drive transformation—individuals do. That perception is mirrored in our end-to-end studying ecosystem, designed to assist people, groups, and enterprises construct expertise that matter at present whereas making ready for what’s subsequent.
Proper now, meaning making ready groups to work with AI. The World Financial Discussion board predicts that by 2030, 39 % of staff’ core expertise will change. That applies to everybody, not simply individuals in ICT and even ICT-adjacent roles. And naturally, the dominant driver of that shift in expertise is AI and technological change.
A generational problem
Our means to fulfill this want for reskilling—each for people and for enterprises—may have implications for generations. At Be taught with Cisco, we’re addressing the problem head-on.
Cisco Networking Academy’s Introduction to Fashionable AI, now accessible in 12 languages, is already considered one of our hottest programs. The NetAcad crew can be releasing a whole suite of studying referred to as “Apply AI.” The primary module reveals tips on how to use AI-driven thematic evaluation to higher perceive buyer suggestions. The following module clearly teaches anybody to make use of AI to put in writing and replace a resume. Additional programs and your complete Apply AI curriculum shall be introduced at Cisco Dwell Amsterdam.
We’re additionally seeing thrilling traction with our AI Enterprise Practitioner Studying Path, accessible on Cisco U. This Studying Path helps professionals in any respect ranges, in all industries, construct foundational AI expertise and lead accountable adoption of AI by way of strategic use and a variety of enterprise purposes.
ICT staff can count on even better adjustments. In 2024, the primary report from the AI-Enabled Workforce Consortium discovered that 90 % of ICT-related roles will expertise excessive or reasonable ranges of transformation from AI. The second report, issued only a 12 months later, discovered that 78 % of ICT-related job roles have been already being remodeled.
We’re remodeling our certifications portfolio simply as shortly. We’re updating current coursework and certifications to include new, in-demand expertise, and we’re including new studying and certifications to show and validate AI-specific expertise. These embrace:
- The Cisco AI Infrastructure Specialist, which lies throughout the CCNP Knowledge Heart certification observe. It permits learners to construct and validate expertise in deploying, migrating, and working AI options on Cisco information middle infrastructure, in addition to in monitoring and troubleshooting.
- The AI Technical Practitioner certification focuses on synthetic intelligence and machine studying workloads, serving to technical professionals turn out to be AI-ready and efficiently embed AI into their workflows.
- The CCDE-AI Infrastructure specialization permits knowledgeable networking professionals to validate their means to design, provision, and optimize networks and compute energy for at present’s AI workloads. It encompasses information of AI and machine studying, in addition to issues regarding networks, safety, {hardware}, and the setting.
We’ll proceed to make these expertise accessible by way of our linked, multiplatform ecosystem:
- Cisco Networking Academy
- Cisco U.
- Cisco Studying Community
- A globally acknowledged certification program
Collectively, these platforms help roughly 7 million learners every year and greater than 28 million learners worldwide since inception, spanning foundational digital literacy by way of expert-level mastery.
Customized, AI-driven studying at world scale
As AI transforms how work will get accomplished, it’s additionally redefining how individuals be taught.
By Cisco U., learners can establish ability gaps, obtain tailor-made content material, and observe progress over time—shifting studying from reactive coaching to proactive expertise growth.
From GenAI-powered assessments and adaptive apply exams to dynamic content material updates, Cisco is embedding intelligence immediately into the educational expertise—whereas persevering with to pair expertise with knowledgeable instruction, mentorship, and group help.
Studying by doing: Palms-on expertise that mirrors actuality
Cisco’s ecosystem is constructed round real-world purposes, making ready learners with job-ready expertise. We’re emphasizing project-based studying—comparable to that present in our Knowledge Science Necessities with Python course, which was just lately highlighted in a white paper launched on the World Financial Discussion board.
Throughout our portfolio, learners interact with digital labs, hardware-based distant labs, life like simulations, Seize the Flag challenges, and project-based experiences that mirror enterprise environments. They’ll construct, safe, automate, and troubleshoot networks utilizing the identical instruments and eventualities they’ll encounter on the job.
This experiential strategy extends to world and regional occasions comparable to Cisco Dwell, hackathons, and expert-moderated research teams — serving to learners construct not simply expertise, however confidence, credibility, and group.
Main the way forward for IT studying
In an period the place the power to repeatedly be taught is the final word aggressive benefit, we imagine IDC MarketScape’s recognition reinforces what we see day by day: expertise are the inspiration of innovation, resilience, and financial development.
At Cisco, we stay dedicated to empowering learners, companions, and clients throughout North America, Europe, and past with the information and hands-on expertise they should lead in an AI-powered world—at present and into the longer term.
As a result of when individuals thrive, expertise transforms.
The IDC MarketScape for IT Coaching Companies analyzes IT coaching corporations with portfolios which might be acceptable to organizations contemplating important digital and AI transformation initiatives.
The inclusion standards embrace:
- A breadth of choices
- Measurement and breadth of choices that may considerably contribute to transformation
- initiatives
- Vital expertise experience that’s vital to transformation initiatives
IDC MarketScape: European IT Coaching Companies 2025 Vendor Evaluation, #EUR153005625, December 2025
IDC MarketScape: North America IT Coaching Companies 2025-2026 Vendor Evaluation, #US52991625, December 2025
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