Rise of AI-Generated Content and Automated Traffic in 2024-2025
In 2024, automated traffic accounted for 51% of all web traffic, according to the Imperva 2025 Bad Bot Report. By late 2024, AI-generated articles surpassed human-written content, as noted by Graphite analytics. A February 2025 study published in the Asian Journal of Research in Computer Science described a machine-driven ecosystem where bots generate between 40% and 60% of web traffic, inflating engagement metrics.
By September 2025, Galaxy Interactive reported that automated activity dominated major social media platforms such as Reddit, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter). This automation contributed to rising amounts of low-quality and repetitive content. On X, it was estimated that up to 64% of accounts could be bots, responsible for 76% of peak traffic. Instagram estimated that around 95 million accounts, about 9.5% of its user base, were fake or automated.
In the cybersecurity landscape, Amazon issued a cease-and-desist against Perplexity over the Comet browser disguising automated agents as shoppers. Separately, Anthropic blocked the first AI-driven cyberattack using its Claude Code system.
Autonomous AI agents—programs that act independently on behalf of users—have heavily influenced these trends. These production lines of automated content increase engagement while simultaneously reducing content variety.
Efforts like Worldcoin, Proof of Personhood, and the Human Passport projects are expanding, aiming to tie online activity to verified humans. These initiatives seek to reward real creators and deter fraud by distinguishing human users from bots.
Advances in AI-generated video tools such as OpenAI’s Sora 2 and Google’s Veo 3 enable the creation of realistic clips and deepfakes, further fueling the proliferation of synthetic content online.
