The Internet of AI Agents is the Future. In Conversation with Vijoy Pandey

2025-11-17 · Source: The Pulse of AI · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Software Development & Engineering, Emerging Technologies & Innovation · Depth: Advanced, extended

Summary

Pulse of AI Podcast Host Jason Stoughton recently interviewed Vijoy Pandey, SVP and GM of Outshift by Cisco, Cisco's internal incubation engine, about the future of AI agents. Pandey, with a PhD in computer science and over 80 patents, discussed Outshift's vision for an "Internet of Agents" and the challenges in achieving seamless agent-to-agent collaboration. The conversation highlighted the need for open, interoperable platforms and protocols to enable agents to discover, identify, compose, communicate, and evaluate each other across various domains, including business, consumer, social, scientific, and physical work. Outshift has open-sourced much of its work in this area through the Agency project (AGNTcy.org), emphasizing the importance of tackling complex, "boring" problems for startups in the agent space.

Key takeaway

For CTOs and VPs of Engineering evaluating AI agent strategies, recognize that the future demands open, interoperable agent collaboration beyond enterprise silos. Prioritize adopting or contributing to open standards and protocols for agent identity and communication, such as those championed by Outshift's Agency project, to ensure your agentic solutions can scale and interact effectively across the broader ecosystem, mitigating future integration complexities and proprietary lock-in risks.

Key insights

The "Internet of Agents" vision aims for open, interoperable agent-to-agent collaboration across all human activities.

Principles

• Technology creates solutions and problems, driving a continuous innovation cycle.
• Open and interoperable ecosystems are crucial for broad participation and success.
• Identity should be a public commodity, not owned by a singular entity.

Method

Outshift's approach to agent collaboration involves four phases: discovery and identity, composition, communication, and evaluation/observability, supported by open-source protocols like A2A and MCP.

In practice

• Startups should focus on solving hard, "boring" business problems with agentic software.
• Leverage open-source projects like Agency (AGNTcy.org) for agent identity, discovery, and communication.
• Consider post-quantum cryptography for agent communication security from the outset.

Topics

• AI Agents
• Internet of Agents
• Outshift by Cisco
• Distributed Systems
• Open-Source Protocols

Best for: CTO, VP of Engineering/Data, Director of AI/ML, AI Engineer, AI Architect, Entrepreneur

Related on AIssential

• The Internet of Agents and What It Means for Enterprise Leaders - with Vijoy Pandey of Outshift by Cisco — Enterprises are transitioning to probabilistic, agent-driven AI, necessitating new approaches to interoperability, governance, and access control.
• Multi-Agent Future: Inside Meta's Moltbook Acquisition — Meta's acquisition of Moltbook and OpenClaw's growth signal a future dominated by autonomous, interacting AI agents.
• The Month AI Woke Up — AI agents have matured to enable autonomous task execution, fundamentally altering programming and impacting market valuations.
• From Connected Agents to Collective Intelligence with Guillaume De Saint Marc of Outshift by Cisco — Multi-agent AI collaboration demands semantic alignment, shared memory, and fine-grained authorization beyond mere connectivity to prevent systemic failures.
• AI agents arrived in 2025 – here’s what happened and the challenges ahead in 2026 — AI agents, unlike reactive generative AI, are proactive systems that perceive, reason, act, and learn with minimal human intervention.
• The OpenClaw-ification of AI — AI products are evolving towards autonomous, persistent, and context-aware agentic systems, mirroring OpenClaw's capabilities.

Open in AIssential →

Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by The Pulse of AI.