AI-powered bots surge by 300%, challenging digital business

AI-powered bots are reshaping the landscape of internet security and business operations in the UK, according to new research by Akamai.

The latest findings from Akamai's 'Fraud and Abuse Report 2025' reveal a surge in AI-driven automated traffic, with AI bot numbers in the UK now estimated at over 3 billion - equating to approximately 43 bots per UK citizen. This sharp rise represents a 300% increase in AI-powered bot traffic globally over the past year and signals foundational changes to the way online businesses and digital infrastructure operate.

AI bots on the rise

Akamai, responsible for delivering up to a third of global internet traffic, highlights that these bots are responsible for nearly 1% of all bot activity across its platform. Digital media has been particularly affected, experiencing close to 5 billion bot detections in July and August alone, with publishers bearing the brunt of this traffic surge.

The report identifies 12.6 billion AI bots in the EMEA region, which accounts for 23.6% of the global figure. The UK emerges as the region's top target, with 3 billion AI bots recorded. Key types in the region include GPTBot, Bytespider, Meta-ExternalAgent, and ClaudeBot, each used primarily for AI model training and content indexing.

AI bots have moved beyond the role of traditional web scrapers and are now integral to a range of cybercriminal activities. According to the research, these include launching impersonation attacks, distributing phishing campaigns, and perpetrating identity fraud using AI-generated documentation. Such developments expose digital businesses to risks against which many existing defences are ineffective.

Impact on digital industries

Key findings from Akamai's report point to the digital publishing sector as the most heavily targeted; the industry accounted for 63% of all detected AI bot triggers. Online businesses face pressure from both beneficial and malicious bots, with the latter driving up operational costs, degrading site performance, and distorting analytic data crucial for decision-making.

The commerce sector also features prominently in the report, registering over 25 billion bot requests in just two months. In healthcare, more than 90% of AI bot interactions relate to scraping activities, mainly by bots focused on search and training functions.

The transformation in bot capability has also simplified the lifecycle of cyberattacks. Akamai's analysis suggests that AI bots now automate many stages of phishing and identity fraud, limiting the human errors that once aided their detection by defenders. As a result, threats can more easily evade conventional monitoring and mitigation tools.

Business models under threat

Surging bot activity is challenging traditional web-based business models. The report notes, "as bot traffic grows, publishers and other content-driven businesses are seeing corrupted analytics and collapsing ad revenues through bots extracting value without giving any in return."

A major consequence for content-heavy industries is that large-scale bot scraping is distorting measurement of genuine user engagement, making it harder to assess the performance of online campaigns and content monetisation strategies. This, in turn, places revenue streams at risk and forces publishers to seek new approaches to defending their content and analysing their audiences.

Guidance for organisations

In response to these evolving threats, the Akamai report recommends aligning organisational defences with three OWASP Top 10 frameworks, addressing web applications, APIs, and large language models. By doing so, security teams can map vulnerabilities such as broken access control, injection flaws, and data exposure against their organisations' risk tolerance, helping to prioritise protection initiatives.

The report also explores how bots work to evade detection and provides guidance on regulatory compliance, as well as sector-specific attack data and examples.

"The rise of AI bots is no longer just a security concern - it's a business imperative," said Rupesh Chokshi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Application Security, at Akamai. "Business leaders must act now to build frameworks that ensure secure AI adoption, manage evolving risks, and safeguard digital operations."

Akamai's infrastructure, which is responsible for handling more than one-third of global web traffic, continues to inform annual research on cyber security trends and online threats. The 'Fraud and Abuse Report 2025' provides in-depth analysis of the rapid changes brought about by AI-powered bots and their impact on businesses in the UK and beyond.