Fastly has released new research revealing that AI-generated internet traffic is growing significantly faster than human-driven activity, signaling a major shift in how businesses manage online infrastructure and digital engagement.
According to data gathered across Fastly’s global edge cloud network, AI traffic increased by approximately 30% between January and May 2026—about 6.5 times faster than the growth rate of human traffic during the same period.
The company said AI-generated requests are becoming a distinct layer of internet activity, driven by AI crawlers, fetchers, agents, and API-based systems that increasingly interact with websites, applications, and online services.
Fastly’s research identified two major categories of AI traffic. AI crawlers systematically collect information to train and update AI models, while AI fetchers retrieve real-time information in response to user queries made through AI assistants and emerging autonomous agents.
The study found that AI workloads place greater demands on digital infrastructure than traditional human traffic. More than half (51%) of AI requests required direct access to origin servers, compared to less than 9% of requests generated by human users.
One of the fastest-growing AI traffic sources observed on Fastly’s network was traffic related to Anthropic’s Claude AI models, which increased by more than 555% compared with its January 2026 baseline.
“As businesses move beyond a world where humans are the primary users of digital experiences, the challenge is no longer simply blocking bots,” said Artur Bergman, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Fastly. “Organizations must determine which machine interactions should be accelerated, managed, challenged, or blocked.”
The report also highlights how organizations are adopting different strategies toward AI-generated traffic. Some companies are restricting AI access to maintain content control, while others are allowing AI agents to interact with their platforms to increase visibility across AI-powered services and discovery channels.
Fastly argues that AI traffic management is evolving beyond cybersecurity and infrastructure concerns into a broader business strategy. The company recommends that organizations focus on visibility, behavioral context, and precise controls to determine how AI systems access and interact with digital assets.
As AI assistants and autonomous agents become more common online, businesses may need to rethink how they balance content protection, performance, customer acquisition, and participation in the emerging AI-driven internet ecosystem.
