Dead internet theory becomes measurable fact as AI agents flood the web

TL;DR

Bots now generate most web traffic as AI agent activity surges nearly 8,000%, upending ad models and analytics built for humans

Bots now outnumber humans on the internet for the first time in the web’s history. Cloudflare, the security firm that sits in front of millions of websites, says automated traffic crossed the 50 percent threshold in June and now accounts for nearly 58 percent of all webpage requests. A separate report from cybersecurity firm HUMAN Security found that traffic from AI agents that actively click links and fill out forms grew nearly 8,000 percent in the past year alone.

The finding is not an outlier. Thales, the French defence and technology group, published its own Bad Bot Report showing bot traffic hit 53 percent in 2025, with 40 percent of all web activity classified as malicious. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince had predicted in March that the crossover would...

Copyright of this story solely belongs to thenextweb.com. To see the full text click HERE