Bot traffic surpasses human web traffic as AI usage grows

Automated bot traffic has reached a critical threshold in the digital landscape. According to the Imperva ‘Bad Bot Report 2026’, bots accounted for 53% of all global web traffic, surpassing human-generated traffic. This shift challenges traditional marketing metrics such as reach, impressions, and clicks, as brands can no longer assume digital interactions are necessarily with human users.

In Portugal, a study by MachineWitness reveals that nearly 13% of analyzed .pt domains are taking steps to limit AI crawlers. Out of 1,325 domains with robots.txt files, 158 blocked at least one AI crawler, while 21 explicitly indicated that their content should not be used for training AI models.

The rise of automation is also altering consumer behavior. A McKinsey survey conducted in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom found that 63% of consumers use AI tools to compare brands and prices, and 46% use them for product discovery. While the final purchase decision remains human, a significant portion of the consumer journey is increasingly mediated by machines.