- Automated systems now generate more internet traffic than humans
- AI crawlers dominate data collection across most major online platforms
- The most automated traffic is concentrated in the retail, media and travel sectors
Bots have officially surpassed human users as the dominant source of traffic on the internet, new research has claimed.
The State of AI Traffic report from Human Sec found that automated traffic will grow nearly eight times faster than human activity by 2025.
“The Internet as a whole was created with this very basic notion that there is a human being on the other side of the computer screen, and that notion is being replaced very quickly,” said Stu Solomon, CEO of Human Security.
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Three categories of AI-powered traffic
The report divides AI-driven traffic into three different categories based on how automated systems interact with websites.
Training crawlers represent the largest share at 67.5%, and these systems primarily collect data to build and improve AI models.
AI scrapers account for around 31.9% of traffic, focusing on real-time data extraction for search tools and AI assistants that need up-to-date information.
A small but fast-growing segment known as agent AI accounted for just 1.7% by the end of 2025.
However, this last category grew nearly 8,000% over the year due to its ability to act independently on websites.
One of the most notable shifts is that AI tools are no longer limited to passive observation of online content.
By 2025, approximately 77% of agent activity occurred on product and search pages, with smaller but notable shares extending into account login flows, approval steps, and even payment pages.
This pattern indicates a move towards AI systems participating directly in online commerce rather than simply supporting it from the sidelines.
AI-driven traffic is also highly concentrated across both sectors and operators.
More than 95% of all AI-powered traffic comes from just three industry sectors: retail and e-commerce, streaming and media, and travel and hospitality.
On the operator side, a small number of companies dominate the landscape, with OpenAI responsible for around 69% of observed AI chatbot traffic, followed by Meta and Anthropic.
This rapid growth creates security concerns as AI shopping assistants operate on the same login pages and payment systems targeted by attackers.
There is an increase in scraping attempts, account takeovers and fraudulent activity, meaning that the gap between legitimate automation and malicious traffic is becoming increasingly difficult to discern.
Nevertheless, the idea of AI traffic does not spell doom or malicious activity in itself, as common features like Google AI overview and autofill are part of this traffic.
“This notion of machine bad, human good is just not realistic,” Solomon said.
“You have to live in a world where machines act on our behalf, and we have to establish a level of trust that is sustained over time.”
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