'AI-driven traffic is the fastest-growing category of internet traffic': New report claims it's official AI and bots have taken over the internet

Date:
Tue, 31 Mar 2026 19:35:00 +0000

Description:
Automated traffic now exceeds human activity online, driven by AI crawlers, scrapers, and agents interacting across commerce, search, and services.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Pro Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Automated systems now generate more internet traffic than humans AI crawlers dominate data collection across most major online platforms Most automated traffic concentrates in 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 by Human Sec found automated traffic grew nearly eight times faster than human activity in 2025. "The internet as a whole was created with this very basic notion that there's a human being on the other side of the computer screen, and that notion is very rapidly being replaced," said Stu Solomon, CEO of Human Security. Article continues below You may like AI bot web traffic is closing in on human usage, experts warn
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of AI-driven traffic The report divides AI-driven traffic into three distinct categories based on how automated systems interact with websites.

Training crawlers represent the largest share at 67.5%, and these systems primarily collect data for building and improving AI models.

AI scrapers account for roughly 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 rapidly expanding segment known as agentic AI made up just 1.7%
by the end of 2025. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners
or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms &
Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

However, this last category grew nearly 8,000% over the course of 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.

In 2025, approximately 77% of agentic activity occurred on product and search pages, with smaller but notable shares extending into account login flows, authentication steps, and even checkout pages. What to read next Metas Moltbook deal means social media will fill with even more bots talking to
each other The 5 creepiest comments by AI agents on Moltbook Business landscape is about to undergo a seismic transformation driven by AI agents

This pattern indicates a move toward AI systems participating directly in online commerce rather than merely supporting it from the sidelines.

AI-driven traffic is also highly concentrated across both sectors and operators.

More than 95% of all AI-driven traffic comes from just three industry
sectors: retail and ecommerce, streaming and media, and travel and hospitality.

On the operator side, a small number of companies dominate the landscape,
with OpenAI responsible for roughly 69% of observed AI chatbot traffic, followed by Meta and Anthropic.

This rapid growth is creating security concerns as AI shopping assistants operate on the same login pages and checkout systems that attackers target.

There is an increase in scraping attempts, account takeovers, and fraudulent activity, which implies the gap between legitimate automation and malicious traffic is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish.

Nevertheless, the idea of AI traffic does not spell doom or malicious
activity by itself, since common features like Google AI Overview and
autofill are part of this traffic.

This notion of machine bad, human good just is not realistic, Solomon said.

You have to live in a world where machines are acting on our behalf, and we have to establish a level of trust thats persistent over time. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

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