Cisco just launched Motific, its first SaaS product aimed at supporting generative AI deployments

Cisco has announced the launch of Motific, its first SaaS product that allows organizations to accelerate generative AI integration and improve ‘trustworthy’ deployments. 

Unveiled at the Cisco Live 2024 conference in Amsterdam, the new SaaS tool was developed through Outshift, Cisco’s incubation business, the company said.

The product will provide a “central view” across an organization's entire generative AI integration journey, enabling IT and security teams to deliver new AI capabilities and offering control over sensitive data, security, costs, and responsible use.

Vijoy Pandey, Senior Vice President at Outshift by Cisco, said the new platform, which is expected to reach general availability by June 2024, will rapidly accelerate “time to value” for enterprises exploring the use of generative AI tools and support innovation.

This, the company said, comes in direct response to customer feedback on the need for greater support for generative AI deployments, which research shows can be highly challenging and costly.

97% of companies told Cisco that an enterprise-wide urgency to deploy AI-powered technology has emerged since the beginning of the generative AI trend in late 2022. 

One of the biggest challenges, customers reported, was the ability to tailor applications and solutions on internal knowledge bases and data sources for specific use cases.

“Cisco is rapidly accelerating its product offerings for customers in the Generative AI space to meet the growing artificial intelligence and security compliance demands of enterprises,” Pandey commented.

“Motific accelerates the time to value an enterprise organization spends on GenAI usage and deployment by mitigating the risk up-front and enabling teams to innovate faster.”

What Cisco offers through Motific

Crucially, Cisco said Motific will enable customers to “deploy GenAI faster and more effectively” by cutting deployment times from months to days. The SaaS product will offer compliance controls to monitor over-usage, prevent overrun spending, and integrate organization-specific data sources. 

“With just a few clicks, Motific automatically configures assistants, abstracted APIs, and RAG on organization-wide data sources and foundation models while delivering optimal accuracy, cost, security, and access control,” the company said.

Risk reduction and responsible use are also a key focus in the new SaaS line, Cisco said. Motific provides “built-in policy controls” that organizations can use - or customize - to govern the use of generative AI tools based on internal policies.

This also includes tools to “deter shadow AI usage” in organizations by providing visibility into the use of unapproved third-party generative AI capabilities and help IT administrators to provide “compliant alternatives”

“These automated controls are built for sensitive data such as personally identifiable information (PII), security such as prompt injection and access controls, and trust-related risks such as toxicity and hallucinations.”

Tools to track return on investment (ROI) will also be available through Motific, Cisco confirmed, which it said will enable organizations to optimize costs.

Concerns over generative AI deployment costs have grown over the last year, with research going so far as to warn that costs could become a key challenge for enterprises and prevent many from fully capitalizing on the use of the technology.

A study from CCS Insight predicted a "cold shower" for enterprises exploring the use of generative AI in 2024 and beyond due to cumbersome costs.