AI Agent Detection: cside Targets Emerging Bot Threats from AI Browsers

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cside announced the launch of its AI Agent Detection toolkit, a first-of-its-kind solution designed to quickly identify agentic traffic and behavior. The toolkit detects activity from both traditional automated headless browsers and emerging AI-powered browsers, including extensions running on consumer devices such as computers and smartphones. With AI Agent Detection deployed, organizations can control which AI agents are permitted to access their websites, define what actions they can take, and require human verification for sensitive interactions.

Businesses have spent years defending against cloud-based bots by blocking all automated traffic. But AI assistants have begun generating traffic from consumer devices to take actions that companies want, like making legitimate purchases or booking travel. Legacy bot detection, which was built to catch cloud-hosted automation, can’t identify agents operating within regular consumer devices. Organizations need visibility into this new traffic category to understand it and customize how agents can best interact with their websites.

cside’s AI Agent Detection can:

  • Detect automated browsers like Comet, ChatGPT Atlas and agentic AI browser extensions like Manus
  • Identify agentic behavior coming from both cloud infrastructure and consumer devices
  • Enable custom website experiences based on specific agent types
  • Dynamically remove or modify page elements agents can interact with
  • Provide observability into agentic traffic patterns
  • Combine with cside’s VPN detection for comprehensive traffic intelligence
  • Deploy via simple SDK for dynamic content adjustments

“The kneejerk response of trying to stop AI agents has created a cat-and-mouse game where agents simply migrate to consumer browsers,” said Simon Wijckmans, CEO and founder, cside. “But businesses’ philosophy ought to be that agents aren’t inherently bad, bad actions are bad. Identifying agents is important for detecting and managing those actions, and our toolkit detects the full spectrum of agentic traffic and empowers businesses to decide how to respond.”

The toolkit also creates unique revenue opportunities. AI agents are built to complete web tasks as quickly as possible, making them more likely to accept pre-selected options during checkout. Businesses can leverage this behavior for cross-selling (such as pre-selecting travel insurance or expedited shipping) to capitalize on agents’ bias toward default selections. Or, for transactions with a higher risk for fraud, organizations can implement dynamic pricing or additional verification requirements to offset increased chargeback exposure.

cside’s AI Agent Detection is available via a very simple SDK that enables developers to adjust website content based on detected agents and drill down to specific agent types. Organizations can use the solution for stronger security and risk management, revenue optimization via dynamic pricing or cross-selling, compliance with terms of service, or better-tuned user experience customizations between human and agentic traffic.

The solution joins cside’s newest capabilities for VPN detection and geographic traffic analysis to create a comprehensive way to understand and manage all types of automated and obfuscated web traffic. Businesses facing new content licensing restrictions, age verification requirements, or fraud prevention mandates can now apply unified policies across agentic AI detection, VPN origination, and geographic location. The integrated approach combats sophisticated actors that often combine multiple techniques, such as VPN location masking and AI agent deployments for automated actions.

“In an industry like retail, for example, the AI Agent Detection toolkit provides critical control over inventory management and pricing integrity,” said Mike Kutlu, Head of GTM, cside. “The instant agentic traffic is detected, retailers can serve modified website versions. Perhaps that means removing limited-inventory items from agent view, or preventing price monitoring bots from getting to real-time pricing. The level of agent customization thus allows retailers to protect high-demand products from automated purchases while still maintaining normal operations for human visitors. Our toolkit can clearly delineate different agent types so that retailers can allow helpful shopping assistants while blocking inventory scalpers and other unwanted agentic traffic.”

To learn more about cside’s AI Agent Detection toolkit, visit the website here.

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Taylor Graham, marketing grad with an inner nature to be a perpetual researchist, currently all things IT. Personally and professionally, Taylor is one to know with her tenacity and encouraging spirit. When not working you can find her spending time with friends and family.