Rise of Automated Agents: How Non-Human Traffic is Redefining the Internet and Telecom Strategies

The digital landscape is undergoing a fundamental transformation as autonomous artificial intelligence evolves from simple conversational tools into active decision-makers. Known as Agentic AI, these systems do more than just answer queries; they navigate the web, fill out forms, and even execute financial transactions on behalf of users. Insights from the SKT AI Policy Research Institute highlight that this shift is fundamentally altering the nature of global internet traffic and the responsibilities of telecommunications providers.

Recent industry data, including a report by Human Security, reveals that automated software and AI now account for 57.4% of all web traffic, officially surpassing human activity, which contributes the remaining 42.6%. This surge is driven by various machine-based actors, including training crawlers and real-time scrapers. Projections for 2025 suggest a 187% increase in overall AI traffic, while activity specifically linked to Agentic AI has exploded by over 7,800% year-over-year. Notably, approximately 2.3% of these automated tasks now reach the stage of autonomous payment without direct human intervention.

This new paradigm presents unique technical hurdles. Unlike humans, who browse sequentially, AI agents often make simultaneous API calls and analyze data in milliseconds, leading to unpredictable spikes in network demand. Telecom companies are responding by developing intelligent infrastructure. Technologies like AI-RAN and edge computing are being implemented to distribute these heavy loads efficiently. Furthermore, cybersecurity must evolve to distinguish between legitimate AI assistants and malicious bots, as their behavior patterns often overlap by as much as 99.5%. This requires a shift toward intent-based security that analyzes the context of a connection rather than just its source.

In South Korea, SK Telecom is leading these efforts through several high-tech initiatives. The company is validating AI-RAN technology in collaboration with global partners to create self-optimizing networks. On the security front, their FAME platform utilizes artificial intelligence to detect fraudulent patterns in real-time. Additionally, SK Telecom is expanding its infrastructure through dedicated AI data centers and GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) offerings. By transitioning from simple connectivity providers to integrated AI infrastructure partners, telecom firms are ensuring that the future of the autonomous web remains reliable and secure.

---

Read original at SK Telecom Newsroom.