Recently, at the Learn with Cisco booth during Cisco Live Melbourne, I had the chance to speak with numerous students, customers, and industry professionals from around the world. In those conversations, a couple of common themes kept coming up: certification (which we specialize in) and artificial intelligence (AI). Interestingly enough, both questions often came up in the same discussions, which I could summarize as: “What certification paths does Cisco have for AI?”
While the topic has been woven into many existing certifications, Cisco has now inaugurated several AI-specific ones:
- AI Business Practitioner (AIBIZ): Aimed at business leaders and decision makers (no exam or certification).
- AI Technical Practitioner (AITECH): Aimed at technical individuals (Learning Path and certification exam).
- Cisco Data Center AI (DCAI) Specialist: Part of the CCNP Data Center as a concentration exam.
In this article, you’ll hear about the Cisco AITECH certification specifically.
Scenario-based learning
One unique feature of both the AITECH Learning Path and the certification exam is that they are grounded in practical application, not just theory or memorization. Each section is built around a business scenario; for example, a director asks the student to build a proposal, deliver a presentation, or create a report on a specific AI task at the company in question.
This not only introduces technical topics related to AI, but also provides real-world content for them. In addition, the lab exercises use the actual tools you might use for such a task, giving you valuable hands-on experience with them.
How AI works: Four questions to ask yourself
As technical professionals, we engineers are conditioned to identify, address, and solve problems, often in real time. While that is certainly a strength, it often pushes us to fix things almost right off the bat. In dealing with AI, we often jump right to solutions, which can short-circuit the process in ways that may not be obvious. To illustrate this point, Ryan Rose, Product Management Director, laid out four questions to ask regarding AI:
- Can AI solve this? (That is, a challenge or problem.)
- Which type of AI should I use?
- What’s the right way to ask for what I want? (Prompts.)
- Does what I got back from AI meet what I wanted, and is it correct?
As engineers, we tend to move right to question three, skipping the ones before, which may account for some of the reasons why AI efforts stall, or even worse, fail. When approaching the use of AI, it pays to ask whether it’s even the right answer and, more specifically, which type of AI will help. For example, if the goal is to generate content (generative AI) and the model being used is geared more towards data analysis or research, this will lead to frustration and discourage adoption.
Which skills does AITECH target?
Both the course and the AITECH certification exam are designed to build specific technical skill sets in the design, implementation, and use of artificial intelligence. While not exhaustive, these include:
- Generative AI models: Understanding diverse generative AI models, their use cases, and hosting options.
- Prompt engineering: Knowing core prompt engineering principles, various prompting techniques, and structures for content generation.
- Ethics and security: Addressing responsible AI principles, data privacy, and security within AI systems.
- Data research and analysis: Using AI for exploratory data analysis and automated data preparation tasks.
- Development and workflow automation: Integrating AI across the software development lifecycle, including code generation and rapid prototyping.
- Agentic AI: Understanding and applying AI agent design principles, autonomous capabilities, and orchestration. (including Model Context Protocol (MCP) framework, human-in-the-loop (HITL) strategies, and data transformation within agents).
What’s the value of Cisco AITECH Certification?
As a Cisco Certified individual myself, I can attest to the incredible personal and professional value of certifications. Even today, they represent tangible validation of technical skills valued in the modern workplace. Here are several reasons why the Cisco AITECH certification is worth pursuing:
- Job market demand and career advancement: Network engineers with proficiency in AI command significantly higher market value and greater career opportunities.*
- Competitive advantage in career longevity: Acquiring AI skills now protects against future job displacement and enables career progression to leadership.**
- Industry-wide digital transformation initiatives create opportunity: Demand for AI-skilled network engineers will far outpace supply in the coming years.***
Certifications are still valuable
At this point, I want to offer a personal perspective on certification, as a follow-up to the discussion on AI-specific certifications. The high-tech industry is one of the sectors that benefits most from certifications, even beyond university degrees. Recent graduates can find this achievement path beneficial when starting out a career in information technology, but those at other stages should continue to upskill.
This achievement path is also beneficial for individuals who experience workplace displacement through layoffs or for those making career transitions. I experienced this firsthand in the late 90s when I faced a switch from a career in the nonprofit sector to the networking industry. I earned my CCNA in 2000, two years after entering the industry, and many more not long after, literally accelerating my career.
As you consider furthering your training in AI, please consider the new Cisco AITECH certification and other available certifications. Investing in yourself is always a good thing!
What’s more, the AITECH Learning Path is free in Cisco U. through March 26, 2026, along with its business-minded counterpart, AIBIZ. It’s the perfect time to learn more about AI.
Start the AITECH Learning Path today (free!)
*2024 Jobs report: AI skills surge in hiring demand, LinkedIn Workplace Intelligence, 2024; Salary trends: AI and machine learning certifications, Glassdoor Economic Research, 2024; Cisco networking index: Global IP traffic forecast, 2023–2028, Cisco Systems, Inc., 2024.
**Future of Jobs Report, World Economic Forum, 2024; The state of AI in 2024: McKinsey global survey results. McKinsey & Company, 2024.
***2024 CIO agenda: The path forward for IT leaders. Gartner, Inc., 2024; AIOps market forecast, 2023–2028. Forrester Research, Inc., 2024.
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