Malicious bots outpace human traffic growth by nine times

A new report by DataDome reveals that malicious bot traffic has surged 124% from July 2025 to June 2026, growing nine times faster than human traffic during the same period. AI-driven bot traffic also rose over 82% in the same timeframe. The report, based on over 1 trillion requests across 75,000+ websites, highlights the increasing sophistication of bot activity. Scraping increased by 185%, while scalping activity rose nearly three times the previous year. AI bots are now targeting login pages at eight times the rate seen in 2025. Jérôme Segura, VP of Threat Research at DataDome, emphasized that automated traffic is no longer just a volume issue but is now infiltrating critical customer processes. The report found that 52.7 billion crawler requests were detected from AI agents, with over 46% originating from Meta-affiliated systems. OpenAI accounted for nearly 35% of bot activity. DataDome also found that 65.3% of websites lack protection against common bot types, with only 2.4% fully protected, down from 8.4% in 2024. Segura warned that bots are now accessing sensitive areas like login pages and payment endpoints, which can lead to credential theft, account takeovers, and fraudulent transactions. The report underscores the urgent need for stronger security measures as bot activity continues to evolve.