AI network capacity is set to become a critical challenge for organizations in the UAE, according to new research released by Cisco in partnership with Foundry. The study found that enterprises have approximately three years before AI driven network traffic rises significantly, pushing network capacity to its limits and expanding cyberattack surfaces beyond what current defenses can effectively manage.

The research surveyed 200 IT leaders in the UAE as part of a global study involving 3,472 respondents. It highlights how the rapid adoption of large language models (LLMs) and the emergence of agentic AI are placing unprecedented demands on enterprise campus and branch networks. As a result, networking has become just as important as computing infrastructure in determining the success of enterprise AI deployments.

Mohannad Abuissa, MD & CTO, Solutions Engineering, Cisco MEA, TRC, said, “Our study shows that while UAE enterprises display remarkable ambition to adopt AI, particularly agentic AI, and the networks to support it, the underlying network infrastructure must continue to evolve at the same pace. As AI workloads increase traffic, latency sensitivity and security complexity, ongoing network modernization is becoming essential to help organizations unlock the transformative power of AI and ensure investments in this space continue to deliver measurable business value.”

The findings show that AI adoption is accelerating across the country. More than half of UAE organizations have already deployed generative AI at scale. Additionally, 34% of surveyed organizations have enterprise wide AI agent deployments, while 99% expect agentic AI usage to increase within the next 24 months.

Unlike human users, AI agents generate dozens of API calls, database lookups, and model inferences within seconds. Consequently, they create dense east west traffic that legacy enterprise networks were not originally designed to support.

Organizations also reported that AI workloads are highly sensitive to network performance. Around 78% identified reliability and uptime as major concerns. Meanwhile, 73% highlighted latency, 64% pointed to bandwidth availability, and 62% cited packet loss as key challenges affecting AI applications.

The study also reveals growing concerns around AI network capacity. Only 32% of UAE respondents believe their networks are fully prepared for projected AI growth, although this remains higher than the global average of 23%.

Overall, 68% of respondents said network upgrades are still required, compared with 76% globally. Furthermore, 81% expect their campus and branch networks to reach capacity limits within the next three years, while 9% reported they are already experiencing capacity constraints because of AI workloads.

Networking and AI experts also expect overall AI related network traffic in the UAE to more than triple over the next three years. Agentic AI alone is expected to drive traffic growth of approximately 126%, representing the largest increase among AI workloads.

In addition, Wi-Fi is emerging as a significant bottleneck. Half of the respondents identified wireless infrastructure as the area requiring the greatest capacity expansion to support growing AI demands.

The report also highlights a gap between AI ambitions and network readiness. Around 76% of IT leaders expressed greater confidence in their organization’s AI strategy than in their network’s ability to support it.

At the same time, 94% said AI adoption has accelerated plans to modernize network infrastructure. However, funding remains a major obstacle. In the UAE, 42% said budget constraints significantly limit modernization efforts, compared with the global average of 31%. Another 51% reported that budgets limit modernization to some extent.

Security challenges are also increasing as AI adoption expands. According to the study, 91% of respondents said they struggle to keep pace with AI related security demands, while 89% reported that AI is already causing operational or security related damage.

Moreover, 66% believe AI driven threats are evolving faster than their organizations can adapt. At the same time, 54% acknowledged they lack sufficient visibility into AI related traffic flows across their networks, making observability another growing concern.

Cisco concludes that network resilience, observability, and adaptive security have become essential foundations for successful AI deployments. As AI adoption continues to accelerate, organizations that prioritize AI network capacity and network modernization as part of their overall AI strategy will be better positioned to support future enterprise AI growth.

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