Smash and Grab at Scale: Agentic AI Is Reshaping the Threat to Commerce
Akamai Technologies, Wednesday, July 15th, 2026
Akamai's SOTI report finds a 19% surge in malicious bot traffic against retail as agentic AI scales API abuse and infrastructure costs.
Akamai's State of the Internet security report, summarized by Kimberly Gomez, finds autonomous AI systems simultaneously improving and endangering e-commerce operations.
Malicious bot traffic targeting retail rose 19%, with attackers exploiting customer-facing chatbots through prompt injection and draining budgets via token theft. Between 2024 and 2025 the commerce sector absorbed more than 200 billion application-layer attacks and nearly three trillion Layer 7 DDoS events.
Akamai recommends layered defenses spanning bot management, complete API discovery and mapping, and microsegmentation to protect digital storefronts.