AI bot activity surged 300% in 2025, with media and publishing among the most targeted sectors, according to a new Akamai report.
Why we care. AI bots are reshaping how content is discovered and consumed, shifting users from search clicks to instant answers in chat interfaces. Publishers are seeing fewer visits from organic search and often don’t get attribution in AI-generated answers. It’s also eroding ad and subscription models.
The threat is real. Publishers now face two threats:
- Training bots that ingest content for models.
- Fetcher bots that extract real-time content for immediate answers. These pose the bigger risk because they capture value as it’s created.
The impact. Pageviews are declining, costs are rising (because scraping bots increase infrastructure costs by consuming server and CDN resources without generating revenue), and brand visibility is weakening.
- AI chatbot referrals drive ~96% less traffic than traditional search
- Users click cited sources in AI answers only ~1% of the time
What publishers are doing. Publishers are adopting nuanced controls (rather than blanket blocking AI bots), such as:
- Monitoring and classifying bot traffic.
- Selectively blocking or slowing malicious scrapers (e.g., tarpitting).
- Allowing approved bots tied to licensing or partnerships.
What they’re saying. According to Akamai’s report:
- “These bots are not just a security nuisance, they represent a profound business challenge that threatens the sustainability of quality journalism in an age dominated by zero-click searches and AI-generated content.”
- “The publishing industry today faces an existential crisis … Many readers and visitors still value trustworthy reporting and original content. Yet, instead of clicking through search results, users now turn to AI-driven platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini for instant answers and summaries.”
What’s next? A “pay-per-crawl” model is emerging. Tools like identity verification (Know Your Agent) and platforms like TollBit aim to authenticate bots and charge for access in real time.
- The goal is to turn scraping into a measurable, monetizable transaction instead of uncontrolled extraction.
About the data. The report analyzed Akamai bot management data from July to December 2025, covering application-layer traffic across websites, apps, and APIs.
The report. SOTI Security Insight Series: Navigating the AI Bot Era (registration required)
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