The Internet has a second audience

Cloudflare reports that as of 2025, more than half of Internet traffic is non-human, with AI agent requests growing over 1,700% in the past year.

The company argues that this shift breaks the traditional web business model, as automated traffic consumes bandwidth without generating ad revenue or subscriptions.

Cloudflare has introduced tools like AI Crawl Control, Business Insights, BotBase, Web Bot Auth, and separate Search, Agent, and Training controls to help site owners identify, differentiate, and set terms for automated visitors.