AI bots could outnumber humans on the web by 2027, according to Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, as agent-driven browsing explodes alongside generative AI adoption.
- Prince made the prediction at SXSW, warning that bots are already reshaping how the internet is used — and how it’s monetized.
Why we care. Search is shifting from human clicks to AI-generated answers. If bots become the web’s primary “users,” you’ll need to reshape your strategy to ensure AI systems can access, trust, and use your content.
The details. Prince said AI agents generate far more web activity than humans because they gather information differently. A person shopping might visit five sites. An AI agent could hit thousands.
- “If a human were doing a task… you might go to five websites. Your agent… will often go to a thousand times the number of sites.”
- “So it might go to 5,000 sites. And that’s real traffic, and that’s real load.”
He also noted the web’s baseline is shifting fast.
- “For a long time, the internet was about 20% bot traffic.”
- “We suspect that in 2027 the amount of bot traffic online will exceed the amount of human traffic.”
Prince said this growth isn’t spiking like COVID-era traffic. It’s rising steadily with no end in sight.
Between the lines. Prince compared AI to past shifts like mobile and social. The difference: users may no longer visit websites directly. Instead, they rely on AI interfaces that aggregate and answer.
- “The business model of the internet was… create content, drive traffic, and then sell things… That was the business model.”
- “That breaks down because… bots don’t click on ads.”
- “Customers are trusting the output from the helpful robot. They’re not clicking through the footnotes.”
AI sandboxes. AI agents also change how computing works behind the scenes. Prince described a future where “sandboxes” — temporary environments for AI agents — spin up and shut down instantly, potentially millions of times per second.
- “You can… as easily as you open a new tab in your browser… spin up new code which can then run and service the agents.”
- “We think that there will be literally millions of times a second these sort of sandboxes… being created… and then torn back down.”
The result: sustained pressure on internet infrastructure.
- “We’re seeing internet traffic grow and grow and grow. And we don’t see anything that’s going to slow it down or stop it.”
The business impact. Companies are already split on how to respond to AI agents. Prince pointed to diverging strategies across major retailers.
- “There are three radically different strategies about how they are going to interact with the bots.”
At the core is a bigger risk: losing the customer relationship.
- “The nature of bots is going to be that it disintermediates the relationship between you and your customer.”
- “Agents… don’t care about brand.”
For publishers. Prince argued AI could both hurt and help media. While AI reduces direct traffic and breaks ad-based models, AI companies need unique, original data — especially local and hard-to-replicate information — and may pay for it.
- “Traffic has always been a really bad proxy for value.”
- “What they actually want is… unique local interesting information they can’t get elsewhere.”
He pointed to local media as an example.
- “If you don’t have the Park Record, then you don’t get that information.”
- “We may make more off licensing our content to AI companies than we do off digital advertising.”
For small businesses. Prince was more blunt. AI agents optimize for price, quality and efficiency — not brand loyalty or proximity.
- “My bot doesn’t care.”
- “My bot is going to figure out actually who is the best… and route that traffic.”
That could erode traditional advantages.
- “The shortcuts of trust that small business had in the past… are going to be much more difficult.”
- “The natural tendency of AI is towards that level of aggregation.”
What to watch. The next phase of the web will hinge on control and compensation. Prince said:
- “There has to be some exchange of value.”
- “We’ve got to figure out… what’s going to pay for it.”
Prince said the core question is still unresolved:
- “What is the future business model of the internet?… I don’t know what it’s going to be, but it’s going to change.”
The SXSW interview. The Internet After Search
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