Forter expands tools for retailers to track agentic AI risks

Forter has announced a product expansion aimed at helping retailers manage the rising prevalence of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) in digital commerce.

The company has introduced new capabilities to monitor both agent and human identities and behaviours, enabling businesses to address fraud and risk as the use of agentic AI increases in the marketplace. According to Forter, agentic traffic spiked by 18,510% across its network shortly after the release of ChatGPT Agent, highlighting major changes in how automated bots and AI assistants engage with online retailers.

AI agent detection

The new release from Forter incorporates advanced AI agent detection tools and browsing identification, a dashboard for real-time monitoring, and industry-wide insights based on its global eCommerce network. Forter states that these tools will give merchants increased visibility into AI-driven activity on their platforms, providing actionable data to help them approach an evolving eCommerce environment securely.

Gartner and other research firms forecast that AI agents will be responsible for 20% of digital commerce traffic in the next five years. In light of this, Forter has positioned its new tools as essential for merchants seeking to understand and leverage the emerging opportunities – and challenges – posed by the rapid advent of agentic commerce.

"AI-powered commerce is the next frontier," said Forter CEO Michael Reitblat. "Merchants that embrace agentic AI will elevate customer experience and unlock new opportunities - those that don't will fall behind."

The expansion arrives at a time when the lines between customer and bot interactions are increasingly blurred. As AI begins to play a more prominent role in commerce, product research, and purchase transactions, Forter notes that legacy approaches to digital engagement, identity management, and fraud prevention are no longer sufficient.

Rise in fraudulent activity

In its network, Forter has observed a 50% increase in fraudulent activity employing scripted and automated methods designed to rapidly alter identities and manipulate images. The company reports that another growing area of concern is synthetic identity fraud, in which multiple data points, brought together by AI, create false yet convincing identities that can mimic either human or agentic consumers.

Discussing the opportunity and challenges presented by AI agents, Cyndy Lobb, Chief Product Officer of Forter, said, "Agentic AI presents an enormous growth opportunity for merchants. What we hear from our customers and the market-at-large is control against fraud and risk in this AI-era is critical to unlocking this opportunity. Our commitment is to give merchants and commerce organizations of all types the confidence to experiment and scale with agents and agent developers."

Capabilities outlined

According to Forter, the new features include models that differentiate between types of AI agents, tools for detecting AI-assisted shopping behaviour, a real-time Agentic Dashboard, and anonymised insights published at industry scale. Planned future capabilities will support automation of policy creation, further insight into consumer trends, specialised tokenisation for agentic transactions, and deeper integration with other eCommerce systems.

Michael Reitblat commented on the company's history and commitment in AI, stating, "Since our founding more than a decade ago, Forter has been at the forefront of AI, building to unlock opportunities for merchants. We were the first to apply neural networks to make real-time identity and fraud decisions possible, co-developed bot identification technology being used by the world's largest brands, the first to recognize the threat and opportunity for enterprise to manage bot access rather than just block it, and now we are at the forefront of agentic commerce while continuing to invest in fraud prevention, payments optimization, and several new areas."

Industry perspectives

Jenna Flateman Posner, CEO and Founder of Chief Digital Agency and an advisor to Forter, added her perspective on the importance of distinguishing AI activity from legitimate customer behaviour.

She said, "As a former retail executive, longtime Forter client and now advisor to the business, I've watched Forter consistently stay ahead of the curve. With AI agents so quickly saturating traffic, getting ahead of determining bad actors vs qualified bot transactions is going to be essential. Retailers need tools that can distinguish between human and agentic behavior without sacrificing customer trust. Forter's agentic AI strategy is exactly what the industry needs to embrace the future of AI-powered commerce confidently and securely."

Forter's latest product capabilities are now available to its customers. The company continues to monitor developments in AI-driven commerce and fraud as it develops additional products and integrations.