More Than Half of the Internet Is Now Bots

Summary:

The internet is now dominated by bots, not humans, with 51% of global web traffic being automated in 2024.
AI-driven bots like ByteSpider are bypassing defenses, inflating internet metrics, and even contributing to tech investment bubbles.
Regulators are struggling to keep up with the surge in bot activity, with new rules banning fake reviews and ticket scalping.

The internet is no longer a human-dominated space. In a milestone shift, bots have overtaken people online. According to the 2025 Imperva Bad Bot Report, automated activity comprised 51% of global web traffic last year, marking the first time in over a decade that non-human traffic has outpaced humans.

The implications go far beyond spammy DMs or ticket scalping. This is a full-blown structural issue: bots are now the majority architects of digital behavior, distorting everything from pageviews to economic forecasts.

At this point, we all know what is fueling that surge: Artificial intelligence.

The internet is no longer primarily a network of people.

It’s a battleground of autonomous agents, artificial intelligences, click farms, scraper bots, ad-tech parasites, and memetic viruses. And most users still believe they’re navigating a human space.

Here’s what’s really…

— SightBringer (@_The_Prophet__) July 31, 2025

With tools like ChatGPT, ByteSpider Bot, ClaudeBot, and Google Gemini now widely available, the bar for deploying malicious bots has never been lower. These AI-enabled bots are designed to bypass traditional defenses, replicate human actions, and even adjust their behavior based on feedback from failed attacks.

ByteSpider alone was responsible for 54% of all AI-driven bot activity in 2024, per Imperva. AppleBot, ClaudeBot, and others made up a sizable chunk as well.

“As automated traffic accounts for more than half of all web activity, organizations face heightened risks from bad bots, which are becoming more prolific every day,” said Tim Chang, General Manager of Application Security at Thales, in the 2025 Imperva Bad Bot Report press release.

These bots don’t just clutter analytics—they damage infrastructure and inflate internet metrics. Bots now routinely simulate clicks, form fills, and ad views. As Fortune reported, inflation skews conversion rates, misleads advertisers, and tricks investors into believing platforms are more popular than they really are.

“This bot-driven inflation may be feeding into a broader tech and AI investment bubble,” wrote Fortune‘s Nick Lichtenberg and Ashley Lutz. “Companies report rapid user growth and engagement, investors chase the next big thing, and the result is a market environment reminiscent of the dot-com era.”

Strangely enough, the problem is more visible than in sectors like travel and retail. In 2024, bad bots made up 59% of all traffic to travel sites, and 44% of advanced bots targeted APIs—the backbone of everything from airline booking engines to payment processing.

These bots steal reward points, hold airline seats, flood SMS systems, and skew key metrics like look-to-book ratios. Even more concerning, simple attacks now make up over half of all bot traffic in some industries, enabled by accessible automation tools.

With bot activity accelerating, regulators are scrambling. The FTC issued a final rule in 2024 banning AI-generated fake reviews and testimonials. The Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, initially passed in 2016, was strengthened by executive order in 2025 to prevent mass ticket scalping via automated bots. And states like California now require bots to disclose their identity when influencing voters or consumers.

Still, experts caution that enforcement lags behind technological advancement. “This year’s report sheds light on the evolving tactics and techniques utilized by bot attackers. What were once deemed advanced evasion methods have now become standard practice for many malicious bots,” said Tim Chang, General Manager of Application Security at Thales, in the 2025 Imperva Bad Bot Report.

“In this rapidly changing environment, businesses must evolve their strategies,” he continued. “It’s crucial to adopt an adaptive and proactive approach, leveraging sophisticated bot detection tools and comprehensive cybersecurity management solutions to build a resilient defense against the ever-shifting landscape of bot-related threats.”