His comments come as businesses worldwide are embracing AI and integrating it into their strategic goals. However, Cisco chairman and chief executive Chuck Robbins suggested that some companies could lose their values or fail to recognise the risks of AI technology if they aren’t careful.
Robbins told the BBC yesterday that AI will be “bigger than the Internet,” but that some companies “won’t make it”. He suggested that some jobs will be changed or “eliminated” by AI, particularly in areas like customer service where businesses will need fewer people.
Urging workers to embrace AI, rather than fear it, Robbins said: “You shouldn’t worry as much about AI taking your job as you should worry about someone who’s very good using AI taking your job.”
His comments come as job cuts are happening worldwide, particularly in larger technology companies, as executives re-shift their focus to strategies like AI development or cost-cutting.
Ericsson, Meta and TCS have already announced workforce reduction in 2026. Yesterday, after a draft internal message from a senior executive was mistakenly shared with employees, Amazon confirmed it was making a new wave of global job cuts.
Many of these cuts have been attributed to AI, as businesses seek to invest further, which sparked wider concerns over the technology ‘taking jobs’ away from workers. Amazon first revealed its plans to eliminate 30,000 jobs in October, claiming at the time that the cuts were largely driven by advances in AI.
AI investment is roaring ahead, with some claiming that the bubble is set to burst. Robbins has likened the movement to the dotcom boom and subsequent crash in the late 1990s, shaking global markets and leading to some companies declaring bankruptcy.
Capacity recently reported that the strategic logic appears to be companies positioning themselves to dominate the next wave of AI-driven services, from enterprise productivity tools to generative content platforms.
However, industry leaders like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella have challenged the ‘AI bubble’ notion, arguing that the technology’s true power lies not in hype or speculation, but in actual positive outcomes to productivity and social impact.
“So many people talk about there may be an AI bubble,” Nadella said at Davos, “but the democratisation and diffusion of technology are what really transform demand. The ultimate winners will be those who adopt and apply AI fastest – not just the creators of the technology.”
As far as Cisco is concerned, as one of the world’s leading technology companies, the company is responsible for some of the most critical IT infrastructure that enables daily AI use. After seeing an 80% value drop after the dotcom crash, the company has successfully rebuilt itself and partners with global AI and chip leaders like Nvidia to facilitate the AI infrastructure boom.
“There’s been a lot of discussion about: ‘Is this a bubble?’. And the answer is probably yes, but we had a bubble in 2000 with the internet. And look at where we are today,” Robbins said.
“So the winners emerge, and there’s carnage along the way, but [AI] is going to be bigger than the internet,” he said. “The winners will emerge, the applications and use cases will begin to evolve.”
Robbins added that AI will make “lots of things better,” but also has “potential risks we all have to mitigate”.
In addition to driving AI forward, Robbins is also chair of the Business Roundtable, where he represents the technology business community to US President Donald Trump.
President Trump has been very vocal about AI, even before he took office again, leaning into data centre investment across the US and launching the country’s AI Action Plan last year to preserve the nation’s leadership in AI technology.
When the BBC asked Robbins about speaking with the president, he said it’s “probably the most accessible administration that we’ve had in decades. So they’re very open. We have lots of dialogue.
“We don’t always agree, but we at least have the dialogue.”
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