The Bot Surge in Digital Commerce: How Generative AI Has Reshaped the Automated Threat Landscape for Online Merchants and Advertisers

This IDC Perspective examines the sustained rise in automated bot traffic against digital commerce merchants and identifies its inflection point at the public release of large language models in late 2022.Drawing on independent threat research data through 2025, the document establishes that:Automated traffic has overtaken human traffic on the open webDigital commerce is among the most heavily botted sectors globallyThe operational impact on merchants now extends well beyond the security perimeter into advertising, personalization, and strategic decision-makingThis IDC Perspective argues that bot exposure is a sector-level problem rather than a commerce platform one and explores the emerging "gray zone" between malicious automation and legitimate customer-directed AI agents. It provides technology buyers with actionable guidance for building a cross-functional response across security, identity, data hygiene, and commercial policy.This is essential reading for digital commerce and marketing leaders preparing for a near-term future in which AI agents will increasingly transact on customers' behalf and for whom determining which bots are engaging with a brand in "bad faith" versus those with legitimate purchase intent."Merchants experiencing rising bot pressure should resist the instinct to blame their commerce platform," says Heather Hershey, research director, AI-Enabled Digital Commerce, IDC. "Instead, invest in portable, layered defenses at the edge. You need sophisticated bot detection strategies that can tell not only the difference between human and bot traffic, but also which bots are in 'good faith' and which are not."