When John Chambers stepped onto the stage at the AI Networking Summit in Dallas this May to accept the Contributions to Humanity Award, the former Cisco chief executive brought with him decades of experience steering companies through technology revolutions. His message to the audience of enterprise IT executives was clear: we’ve seen this level of disruption before, but artificial intelligence will move faster and hit harder than the internet boom of the 1990s.
The award ceremony wasn’t just recognising past achievements. It was acknowledging someone uniquely positioned to guide today’s business leaders through another period of rapid technological change. Chambers, who led Cisco through the internet explosion when the company achieved average annual revenue growth of 65% and briefly surpassed Microsoft’s market capitalisation at $550 billion by 2000, sees striking parallels between then and now.
The Speed of Change Has Accelerated
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During his fireside chat with ONUG Co-Founder Nick Lippis, Chambers drew direct comparisons between the two eras. ‘AI is going to move faster than the internet ever did,’ he told the packed audience. ‘It will probably get three times the output from that in terms of changing our lives, maybe for the better.’
Recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis shows generative AI reached 39% adoption among US adults aged 18-64 within two years of mass market availability. By comparison, the internet took five years to reach just 20% adoption after becoming commercially available in 1995. Harvard research confirms this pattern, with AI adoption outpacing both internet and PC adoption at comparable points in their lifecycles.
During the 1990s internet boom, Chambers developed what Harvard Business Review described as a unique leadership style characterised by foresight and adaptability. He focused on identifying market transitions five to seven years in advance and moved Cisco from a command-and-control management style to collaborative, decentralised decision-making. Learning from how business leaders drive growth through AI adoption required similar adaptability when the dot-com bubble burst in 2001.
Current Business Applications Show Promise
The sectors Chambers highlighted during his speech – healthcare, education and security – are already showing concrete results from AI deployment. A PwC 2025 report found that 79% of healthcare organisations have adopted AI to enhance patient care and reduce administrative tasks, while pharmaceutical companies use AI to accelerate drug development and improve clinical outcomes.
In productivity applications, companies are seeing measurable improvements. Microsoft case studies show ANZ bank using AI tools to automate tasks and boost workforce efficiency by up to 30%, while XP Inc achieved similar gains for their audit teams. These aren’t theoretical benefits – they represent the kind of operational improvements Chambers expects to multiply across industries.
The Governance Challenge
Yet Chambers emphasised that speed alone isn’t enough. His focus on ‘ethical foresight and global cooperation’ reflects lessons learned from the internet era, when rapid growth often outpaced regulatory frameworks and risk management. Current surveys reveal this remains a challenge: IBM research shows nearly half of organisations express concerns over data accuracy and bias in AI systems, while only about one-third have formal AI governance structures in place.
The 2025 Governance Outlook emphasises this gap, noting that despite high AI investments from senior leaders, most companies struggle to integrate governance frameworks effectively across technology, finance, security and legal departments. Questions about AI governance and accountability mirror the challenges Cisco and other companies faced during the internet boom, when infrastructure development often preceded proper risk assessment.
Acting Boldly While Managing Risk
Chambers’ career trajectory offers a blueprint for navigating this tension. After leading Cisco through spectacular growth during the 1990s, he successfully managed the company’s transformation during the dot-com crash by shifting from aggressive expansion to collaborative, integrated operations. His emphasis on anticipating market transitions and maintaining customer focus helped Cisco emerge stronger from the downturn.
For today’s leaders, this translates to what Chambers calls acting ‘boldly and strategically’ in AI adoption. Understanding the future of AI from industry thought leaders becomes crucial as the National Association of Corporate Directors recommends heightened board engagement in AI governance, including formal risk assessments, bias evaluations and documentation frameworks.
Chambers’ recognition at the Dallas summit wasn’t just about past achievements – it acknowledged someone who understands both the promise and perils of technological change. As Lippis noted during the award presentation, ‘Throughout his remarkable career, Mr Chambers has championed the power of technology to change lives. For him, new technology development wasn’t just about business – it was about unlocking human potential, fostering collaboration and bridging global divides.’
The lessons from the 1990s internet boom suggest that companies succeeding in the AI era will be those that combine aggressive adoption with thoughtful governance. Chambers’ call for bold action tempered by ethical foresight may prove as relevant for today’s AI revolution as his collaborative leadership approach was for navigating the internet’s ups and downs.
