Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic, data shows

3 hours ago

AI and bot traffic surpassed human traffic online for the first time, reaching 57.4% of requests according to Cloudflare data.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince noted this milestone occurred earlier than predicted, driven by rapid growth in agentic AI traffic.
The increase is linked to AI agents, autonomous programs that collaborate with high-level systems with minimal human feedback.
Bot traffic’s exponential rise may reshape the internet's business model, as bots don’t click on ads, challenging ad-based revenue.
Prince suggests charging bots for content access could fund a ‘golden age’ of the internet, making it free for humans again.
He disputes the ‘dead internet theory,’ arguing AI democratizes content creation by enabling non-programmers to build online.
The web had shrunk from 2015 to 2025, but AI has recently spurred exponential growth and creative expansion online.

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