From Troubleshooting to Configuration Through Natural Language with NetBeez

Panickos will demonstrate how AI is being integrated into NetBeez NextGen to help operators troubleshoot problems and manage monitoring using natural language. The session will cover the NetBeez AI architecture, including support for NetBeez-hosted AI and customer-selected AI providers. Live demonstrations will show an L1 operator using AI to investigate and summarize a user issue, create a monitoring target, and tune alert profiles, as well as how MCP enables NetBeez data and capabilities to participate in broader AI workflows. Panickos Neophytou of NetBeez closed the company’s presentation at Networking Field Day 41.

Neophytou described three ways AI fits into NextGen: answering open questions from NetBeez evidence, testing an operator’s hypothesis on demand, and turning intent into actions such as creating targets. The NextGen server exposes purpose-built tools for querying telemetry, running ad hoc tests, and changing monitoring configurations. Operators reach these tools through an in-dashboard assistant or through an MCP server. The dashboard assistant inherits the context of the current view, including the agent, time window, and tests on screen. Neophytou said the MCP server is integrated with the platform rather than wrapping the API, and that everything it offers is also available through a JSON API. Customers can bring their own API keys for any AI provider, use a model hosted by NetBeez, or point the assistant at a locally run model. In the demonstrations, the assistant summarized the day’s priorities from the main dashboard. Without being told the cause, it traced degraded call quality in the Barcelona office to Wi-Fi instability on a single sensor. It then requested approval before running ad hoc ping tests to techfieldday.com from five agents and created a monitoring target from the results.

Delegates asked about the direction of data flow with AIOps platforms. Neophytou said that through MCP, NetBeez becomes another data source and configuration endpoint that customer-built agents can query and act on alongside documentation and other tools. Those agents can also generate standalone dashboards from the NetBeez API. He confirmed that operators can ask the assistant to recheck an issue after making a fix, which closes the verification loop that the earlier sessions described. Looking ahead, NetBeez plans to add more tools and a background agent that continuously analyzes data and delivers scheduled reports. Neophytou stressed that operators stay in control and that NetBeez is not trying to build another black box.