Bengaluru: Akamai Technologies has released its latest State of the Internet (SOTI) report, revealing a major rise in AI-driven automated traffic affecting websites across industries.
The Digital Fraud and Abuse Report 2025 highlights a 300% increase in activity from AI-powered bots over the past year, posing new risks for digital businesses worldwide.
AI Bots Driving Massive Surge in Automated Traffic
According to Akamai, AI bots now account for nearly 1% of all bot traffic across its global platform. These bots generate billions of requests that distort analytics, slow down performance, and inflate costs for online businesses. The spike is mainly due to large-scale content scraping, where bots extract data and content without returning any value. This trend is threatening traditional online business models, especially for publishers who rely on accurate traffic data and advertising revenue.
Publishing and Commerce Industries Hit Hardest
The report identifies publishing as the sector most affected, with 63% of AI bot triggers recorded in this industry. Publishers face declining ad revenue and unreliable analytics as bots flood their sites. The commerce industry follows closely, registering more than 25 billion bot requests in just two months.
Even the healthcare sector is not spared. Over 90% of AI bot triggers in healthcare come from scraping, often by search or training bots collecting data for AI systems. While some bots serve legitimate purposes like search indexing, many — including malicious bots such as FraudGPT, WormGPT, and ad fraud bots — are used for fraud, impersonation, and phishing.
Rising Threats from AI-Enabled Attacks
Akamai’s findings show that AI has made it easier for both professional hackers and new malicious actors to launch targeted attacks. These include impersonation scams, social engineering, and the creation of fake documents and images for identity fraud. As AI tools become more accessible, the line between helpful automation and harmful misuse continues to blur.
Strengthening Defenses with OWASP Frameworks
To counter these threats, Akamai advises organizations to strengthen their defenses using the three OWASP Top 10 frameworks for web applications, APIs, and large language models. These frameworks help map known vulnerabilities — such as access control failures, injection flaws, and data exposure — to a company’s fraud risk tolerance, enabling more effective protection.
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