A new survey of 300 enterprise IT and security leaders at Fortune 100-scale companies. 

AI-driven bots now generate nearly one in five web requests hitting enterprise infrastructure. Yet 77% of organizations are managing that threat reactively or with default tooling. This report reveals what separates the organizations prepared for what's coming from the ones that aren’t.

RISK, READINESS, AND GOVERNANCE

The full report surfaces what separates organizations with mature bot governance from those still reacting. Here’s what is inside:

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Intelligence Report: 

AI Bots in 2026

Request a briefing

We'll walk you through what the research means for your industry and the threats ahead.

GET THE FINDINGS

Close the gap

The readiness number

The 56-point gap is the headline. The report breaks down what proactive governance looks like in organizations that have actually achieved it.

Where the risk is going

Bot impact is shifting from security incidents to CX and data integrity. The report maps that transition and what it means for how you allocate security investment.

What high-maturity orgs do

From rule update cadence to telemetry strategy, the report identifies the specific markers that separate reactive from proactive governance.

BY THE NUMBERS

Perception vs. Reality is Skewed

The threat profile is shifting. Download the report to see where your organization stands and what proactive bot governance actually looks like in practice.

THE REPORT

Ready to close the readiness gap?

17%

Average AI bot share of enterprise web traffic today, with 43% of organizations reporting between 10 and 25%.

The report surfaces findings across three infrastructure domains where AI bot exposure is accelerating fastest.

WHO THIS REPORT IS FOR

Bot risk looks different based on where you sit

Security and Threat
Detection

74% of security leaders cite credential attacks as their top bot concern. Detection tools built for static threats aren't keeping up with bots that continuously adapt.

CDN and
Observability

Bot traffic degrades cache efficiency and real user experience before it ever triggers a security alert. For CDN teams, the cost of inaction shows up in performance metrics first.

DevOps and
Infrastructure

Telemetry overload is the third most cited barrier to effective bot management. When you can't separate bot traffic from legitimate requests at volume, the signal disappears.

77%

Of organizations have no active bot governance posture, operating either reactively or on default tooling alone.

Expect customer experience degradation to replace cyber incidents as their primary bot-related impact within 12 months.

54%

The organizations most at risk aren’t the ones without tools. They’re the ones with high confidence in tools that aren’t performing. The data tells a more specific story:

THE BOT PROBLEM

Detection isn’t the same as protection

Detection without action

79% of security leaders report detection confidence. But 77% have no active governance posture.

AI bot traffic is already here

AI bots account for 17% of enterprise web traffic today, a contradiction to most industry reports. There is a gap between bot visibility perception vs. reality.

The threat profile is shifting

Within 12 months, 54% of leaders expect customer experience degradation from bots to become their primary concern.

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