AI Assistants

Track and analyze traffic from AI agents like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other AI systems.

Overview

The AI Assistants report helps you understand how AI agents interact with your website. As AI-powered search and assistants become more common, it’s increasingly important to know when automated AI systems are accessing your content versus human visitors.

Navigate to AI Assistants in the main menu to access these reports.

What Are AI Agents?

AI agents are autonomous systems that access websites to retrieve information, answer user questions, or complete tasks. Unlike traditional search engine crawlers, AI agents actively consume and surface your content in response to user prompts.

Common AI agents include:

ChatGPT — OpenAI’s conversational AI
Claude — Anthropic’s AI assistant
Perplexity — AI-powered search engine
Google Gemini — Google’s AI assistant
Microsoft Copilot — Microsoft’s AI assistant
Other AI crawlers and bots

Why Track AI Traffic?

Understanding AI agent traffic helps you:

Content Visibility

See which pages AI agents access most frequently
Understand what content is being surfaced in AI responses
Identify opportunities to optimize for AI discovery

Traffic Analysis

Separate AI traffic from human traffic for accurate analytics
Avoid inflated visitor counts from automated requests
Get a true picture of human engagement

Technical Optimization

Identify crawl errors AI agents encounter
Ensure your content is accessible to AI systems
Optimize metadata and structure for AI consumption

Strategic Planning

Monitor trends in AI traffic over time
Understand how AI is changing your traffic patterns
Plan content strategy with AI discovery in mind

AI Assistants Reports

AI Agent Overview

A high-level summary comparing AI agent traffic to human traffic:

AI Agent Visits vs Human Visits — Direct comparison of visit volume
Average Visit Duration — How long AI agents vs humans spend
Actions per Visit — Interaction comparison (AI typically has fewer)
Bounce Rate — AI agents often have higher bounce rates
Total Actions — Overall activity comparison

AI Agents Over Time

Track AI agent traffic trends:

Daily, weekly, or monthly AI visits
Growth or decline in AI traffic
Seasonal patterns
Impact of AI product launches

AI Agent Breakdown

See which specific AI agents visit your site:

ChatGPT crawler
Claude crawler
Perplexity bot
Other identified AI agents

Understanding the Data

AI Agent Behavior Patterns

AI agents typically behave differently than humans:

Shorter visits — AI agents often retrieve specific content quickly
Higher bounce rates — They don’t navigate like humans
Fewer actions — Usually one page or resource per request
Predictable patterns — More consistent than human traffic

What This Means

Don’t be alarmed by high bounce rates or short durations from AI agents — this is normal behavior. Focus on:

Are AI agents finding your important content?
Is your content being accessed consistently?
Are there errors or access issues?

Using AI Assistant Data

Content Optimization

If important pages aren’t being accessed by AI agents:

Review page structure and metadata
Ensure content is crawlable
Check robots.txt settings
Improve internal linking

Error Detection

High 404 rates from AI agents may indicate:

Outdated links on external sites
Structural issues on your site
Content that’s been moved or removed

Competitive Intelligence

Monitor which content AI agents prioritize:

What topics are being crawled most?
Which pages are AI systems finding valuable?
How does this align with your content strategy?

Segments

The AI Assistants report includes predefined segments:

AI Agent Segment

Filter any report to show only AI agent traffic. Use this to:

See which pages AI agents visit most
Understand AI-specific traffic sources
Analyze AI agent behavior patterns

Human Segment

Filter to show only human traffic. Use this to:

Get accurate human engagement metrics
Remove AI inflation from reports
Compare human vs AI behavior

Using Segments Together

Compare segments side-by-side to understand:

How AI agents discover content differently than humans
Which content resonates with each audience
Where AI and human interests overlap or diverge

Best Practices

Regular Monitoring

Check AI traffic trends periodically:

Is AI traffic growing?
Are new AI agents appearing?
Are there unusual patterns?

Content Accessibility

Ensure AI agents can access your content:

Review robots.txt for AI crawler rules
Check that important pages aren’t blocked
Ensure metadata is descriptive and accurate

Structured Data

Help AI agents understand your content:

Use schema markup where appropriate
Write clear, descriptive page titles
Include comprehensive meta descriptions

Balance AI and Human Needs

Remember that AI agents serve human users:

Content optimized for AI often helps humans too
Don’t sacrifice human experience for AI optimization
Focus on quality content that serves both audiences

Healthcare Considerations

For healthcare websites, AI traffic has additional implications:

Patient Information

AI agents may surface your health content in responses to user questions. Ensure:

Medical information is accurate and up-to-date
Content includes appropriate disclaimers
Information is presented responsibly

Provider Discovery

AI assistants increasingly help users find healthcare providers. Optimize:

Provider profile pages
Location and contact information
Services and specialties content

Competitive Positioning

Monitor how AI agents interact with your content versus competitors:

What healthcare topics are being crawled?
Is your content being accessed for key services?
How can you improve AI visibility?

Limitations

Not all AI agents identify themselves clearly
Some AI traffic may be categorized as regular bot traffic
AI agent identification improves over time as new agents are recognized
Historical data only available from when tracking was enabled

Next Steps

Visitors Reports — Analyze overall traffic patterns
Behavior Reports — See what content performs best
Acquisition Reports — Understand traffic sources