- Automated systems now generate more Internet traffic than humans
- AI Trackers Dominate Data Collection on Most Major Online Platforms
- Most of the automated traffic is concentrated in the retail, media and travel sectors.
Bots have officially overtaken human users as the dominant source of Internet traffic, new research claims.
Human Sec’s State of AI Traffic report found that automated traffic grew almost eight times faster than human activity in 2025.
“The Internet as a whole was created with the 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-powered traffic into three distinct categories based on how automated systems interact with websites.
Training trackers account for the largest proportion at 67.5%, and these systems primarily collect data to build and improve AI models.
AI scrapers account for approximately 31.9% of traffic and focus 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 agent AI accounted for just 1.7% by the end of 2025.
However, this last category grew by nearly 8,000% throughout the year due to its ability to act independently on websites.
One of the most notable changes is that AI tools are no longer limited to passive viewing of online content.
In 2025, approximately 77% of agent activity occurred on product and search pages, with a smaller but notable proportion extending to account login flows, authentication steps, and even checkout pages.
This pattern indicates a move towards AI systems directly participating in online commerce rather than just supporting it from the outside.
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 approximately 69% of observed AI chatbot traffic, followed by Meta and Anthropic.
This rapid growth is raising security concerns as AI shopping assistants operate on the same login pages and payment systems that attackers target.
There is an increase in scraping attempts, account takeovers and fraudulent activities, meaning the gap between legitimate automation and malicious traffic is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish.
However, the idea of AI traffic does not mean doom or malicious activity on its own, as common features like Google AI Overview and autocomplete are part of this traffic.
“This notion that machines are bad and people are good is just not realistic,” Solomon said.
“We have to live in a world where machines act on our behalf and we have to establish a level of trust that is persistent over time.”
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