Cisco reportedly plans to cut thousands of jobs in a second-round of layoffs this year as part of a plan to pivot towards cybersecurity and AI.

Reuters reported the cull could be slightly higher or on par with the 4,000 employees the vendor laid off in February. Prior to headcount reductions, Cisco had around 84,900 employees as of July 2023.

Citing anonymous sources, the news site stated the layoffs are related to Cisco shifting its focus to higher growth areas such as AI and cybersecurity, but those efforts have been underway since last year.

A representative for Cisco told Mobile World Live it does not comment on rumours or speculation. The company will report its fiscal Q4 2024 earnings on 14 August.

In June the vendor announced a  $1 billion fund to make investments in AI startups such as Cohere, Mistral AI and Scale AI. It’s also integrating AI across its products and services including security, cross-network observability and network resilience.

On the cybersecurity front, Cisco completed a deal earlier this year to buy cybersecurity firm Splunk for $28 billion.