As we flip the calendar to 2026, the New Zealand business landscape looks fundamentally different than it did even twelve months ago. In 2025, we were talking about employees “using” AI—prompting a chatbot to draft an email or summarise a meeting.
But as we settle into 2026, the “User” has changed.
We’ve officially entered the era of Agentic AI. Staff aren’t just using tools anymore; they are managing AI Agents—autonomous digital workers that execute multi-step workflows, sync data across platforms, and communicate with other agents 24/7 without a human ever hitting “Enter.”
For IT managers and business owners, this shift brings a hidden challenge that hasn’t made it to the boardroom yet: The Agentic Overload.
The “Burst” That Never Sleeps
In the old world (2024), network traffic was predictable. Humans worked 9-to-5, they watched videos, they sent emails, and then they went home. Traffic dipped at night.
In 2026, AI Agents don’t go home. An agentic workflow—like an autonomous supply chain bot or an automated security auditor—might trigger thousands of micro-interactions per second. Recent industry data suggests that agentic AI queries can generate up to 25 times more network traffic [PDF] than simple chatbot interactions, placing unprecedented strain on standard business connections.
This isn’t just “more” data; it’s “chattier” data. Agents require near-instantaneous feedback loops. If an agent-to-agent communication loop is delayed by even 100 milliseconds due to network jitter, the entire reasoning chain can fail.
Why the “Global Cloud” is Feeling Further Away
For the last few years, the instinct was to “put everything in the global cloud.” But in 2026, we’re seeing the Latency Tax hit home. When your AI agents in Wellington are constantly pinging servers in Sydney or Northern Virginia to complete a single task, those milliseconds add up.
Furthermore, as 40% of enterprise applications are now integrated with task-specific AI agents, the demand for “sovereign” infrastructure has peaked. In an agentic environment, high latency doesn’t just mean a slow screen—it means a broken workflow. Keeping your data in a local NZ data centre isn’t just about compliance anymore; it’s about the raw speed of execution.
The Xtreme Networks Advantage: Building the Agentic AI-Ready Network
At Xtreme Networks, we’ve been preparing for this “Invisible Workforce.” As we look at the year ahead, your network strategy needs to move from capacity to capability.
- Zero-Egress Strategy: AI agents are “data magnets.” They pull and push massive amounts of information. In the global cloud, every byte they move costs you an “egress fee.” In our local colocation environment, those fees disappear, allowing your agents to work at scale without breaking the budget.
- The Power of Local Peering: Our open peering policy means your agents are one hop away from the major NZ providers. We reduce the “distance” your data travels, ensuring the ultra-low latency that autonomous agents demand.
- Hyperfibre Backhaul: With Wi-Fi 7 now standard in the 2026 office, the “all-wireless” workplace is finally here. But those wireless points are only as fast as the fibre feeding them. Our business-grade connectivity ensures that when your team deploys 50 new agents tomorrow, your core internet doesn’t blink.
2026: The Year of the Infrastructure Reset
If 2025 was the year of AI experimentation, 2026 is the year of AI Infrastructure. The businesses that succeed this year won’t just have the best AI models; they’ll have the best networks to run them on. It’s time to stop treating your network as a utility and start treating it as the engine room for your digital workforce.
Is your network holding your agents back? Let’s talk about a 2026 infrastructure audit.