AI Agent Traffic Declines in May, But Blocking Rates Continue to Rise

In May 2026, the amount of AI agent traffic on the internet dropped for the first time in months. However, the rate at which this traffic is being blocked or filtered continued to increase. This surprising trend shows that website operators are becoming more careful, even as the overall traffic from AI agents decreases.

Decline in AI Agent Traffic

According to a report by HUMAN Security’s Satori Threat Intelligence Team, AI agent traffic fell by 4.3% from April to May 2026. This information comes from their monthly report on AI traffic. The decline was notable because it marked the first drop in a while. But even with less traffic, the rate at which operators are blocking this type of traffic grew, increasing from 8.2% to nearly 9%.

Major Players in AI Agent Traffic

Despite the overall decline in traffic, some AI tools managed to hold or grow their market share. The Comet Browser by Perplexity AI and Atlas by OpenAI continued to be the two largest sources of AI agent traffic, accounting for 47% and 20.3% of the total, respectively. However, both saw decreases in absolute traffic volume—Comet’s traffic decreased by 6.8%, and Atlas’s by 9.2%.

On the other hand, two other tools gained ground. The Claude Chrome Extension from Anthropic grew its share of AI agent traffic from 17.3% to 18.6%. Another product, Genspark, also rose to 2.9%, representing a healthy growth rate of 18.2%.

Traffic Distribution Across Sectors

In May, most AI agent traffic came from three main sectors:

• Media: 43.4%
• E-commerce: 40.5%
• Travel: 13.7%

These three areas combined made up nearly 98% of all AI agent activity. This distribution shows that AI agents are primarily used for tasks like research, price comparisons, and travel planning.

Interestingly, a survey found that 82% of people would trust a human travel agent more than an AI assistant for important bookings. This suggests that while AI is popular for preliminary research, human input is still preferred for final decisions.

What Are AI Agents Doing?

More than 76% of AI agent activity in May involved product browsing, reading articles, and conducting searches. Only 2.4% of actions were on checkout and payment flows. This shows that while AI agents can help with many tasks, they’re not yet widely used for final transactions, which often still require human interaction.

The Rise of Blocking Rates

The increase in the blocking rate is worth noting. It reflects that website operators are not just reacting to changes but actively implementing stricter control measures to manage AI traffic. This is essential, especially as automated agents make up a growing portion of web traffic.

Moreover, a broader analysis revealed that bots now account for 57.4% of traffic to HTML content, highlighting the urgency for more robust traffic management strategies.

Conclusion

The May 2026 data from HUMAN Security shows a significant transition in how internet traffic operates. While the volume of AI agent traffic has dipped, the increased blocking rates indicate that operators are adapting to a new digital environment where AI plays a crucial role. Understanding these trends can help businesses make informed decisions about their online presence and interaction with AI technologies.