--- title: The impact of AI on wide area network traffic: we need... description: Cisco has published a research report examining how AI—particularly agentic AI—is reshaping wide area network (WAN) traffic patterns. Based on live production... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-impact-of-ai-on-wide-area-network-traffic-we-need-to-talk-gpmnqy1oy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The impact of AI on wide area network traffic: we need to talk | daily.dev og:description: Cisco has published a research report examining how AI—particularly agentic AI—is reshaping wide area network (WAN) traffic patterns. Based on live production... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-impact-of-ai-on-wide-area-network-traffic-we-need-to-talk-gpmnqy1oy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/GPmnQy1Oy.png og:image:alt: The impact of AI on wide area network traffic: we need to talk og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The impact of AI on wide area network traffic: we need to talk **[Cisco](https://daily.dev/sources/cisco)** · 5 min read · 3 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Cisco has published a research report examining how AI—particularly agentic AI—is reshaping wide area network (WAN) traffic patterns. Based on live production network data and controlled experiments, the report finds that AI inference traffic behaves fundamentally differently from standard web traffic in terms of shape, symmetry, latency requirements, and criticality. Key projections include AI inference representing 25% of all network traffic by 2035, with the sharpest growth between 2029 and 2032, and a 63% additional traffic growth driven by AI's multiplying effect. The report argues that traditional network planning assumptions are no longer valid and calls for updated infrastructure strategies, including differentiated QoS, higher resilience, and continuous measurement frameworks for network leaders and service providers. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Is your SD-WAN ready for AI-powered operations?](https://daily.dev/posts/is-your-sd-wan-ready-for-ai-powered-operations--lvgz7fp0j) · Cisco · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Networking for AI: Building the foundation for real-time intelligence](https://daily.dev/posts/networking-for-ai-building-the-foundation-for-real-time-intelligence-lcm6pwlfd) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why AI inference is becoming a networking issue](https://daily.dev/posts/why-ai-inference-is-becoming-a-networking-issue-qdlmrixvx) · Cisco · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Backblaze spots AI workloads pushing bigger network flows](https://daily.dev/posts/backblaze-spots-ai-workloads-pushing-bigger-network-flows-7lglkosml) · The Register · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why networks face new limits in the age of AI](https://daily.dev/posts/why-networks-face-new-limits-in-the-age-of-ai-jlgrnpsg4) · Cisco · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#agentic-ai](https://daily.dev/tags/agentic-ai), [#ai-inference](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-inference), [#cisco](https://daily.dev/tags/cisco), [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-impact-of-ai-on-wide-area-network-traffic-we-need-to-talk-gpmnqy1oy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The impact of AI on wide area network traffic: we need to talk","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-impact-of-ai-on-wide-area-network-traffic-we-need-to-talk-gpmnqy1oy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-impact-of-ai-on-wide-area-network-traffic-we-need-to-talk-gpmnqy1oy"},"datePublished":"2026-05-01T15:04:16.897Z","dateModified":"2026-10-15T02:19:42.175Z","description":"Cisco has published a research report examining how AI—particularly agentic AI—is reshaping wide area network (WAN) traffic patterns. 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