IMAGE: Smartly
The Dead Internet Theory posits that a substantial part of the internet’s apparent activity is no longer driven by real humans but by bots and AI-generated content, a shift that has profound implications for both the credibility of online conversations and the trustworthiness of advertising outcomes.
The rise of automated bots isn’t merely the stuff of internet conspiracies: multiple studies and industry reports support the claim that bots now represent a significant slice of all online traffic.
For instance, security firm Imperva’s 2023 report found that nearly 50 per cent of all web traffic was generated by bots—a substantial jump compared to a decade prior. These bots, which can create content, interact with posts and imitate users, don’t just skew engagement numbers but also disrupt the metrics on which digital advertising relies.
As such, this poses a challenge for advertisers and the industry. Chi Yu, lead at Smartly AI Labs, notes the industry is recalibrating its approach for a bot-filled world—advertisers are also increasingly focusing on quality engagement metrics beyond simple click-through rates.
Smartly guides clients towards conversion rates, dwell time and post-click behaviours, integrating third-party tools to detect anomalies and adjust campaigns in real-time. The aim is to ensure ad budgets are spent on genuine human interactions.
This means marketing leaders must recalibrate their entire measurement framework, moving beyond vanity metrics to focus on verifiable, high-intent customer engagement. This could force a much-needed change on thinking about advertising.
The rise of AI-generated content and virtual influencers is forcing a re-evaluation of attribution and ROI models.
Yu highlights that the big differentiator now is creative, specifically how AI can generate and optimise creative content at scale. Smartly’s platform enables dynamic creative optimisation, allowing real-time testing of content to gauge its impact across the customer journey. It champions multi-touch attribution models that account for AI-driven content’s influence across various touch points, providing a more comprehensive ROI picture.
Clients that already have significant attribution capabilities, coupled with Meta’s and Google’s bot detection capabilities, can integrate third party data to Smartly’s platform. “These tools, coupled with Smartly’s AI platform, allow customers to optimise their advertising towards business outcomes, for instance, in return of ad spend (ROAS),” says Yu.
Jumeirah, a luxury hospitality brand, is an example where Smartly worked with and external platforms to set up this approach, which help achieved a 109 per cent increase in ROAS.
While AI-generated ads and synthetic audiences are powerful tools, Yu stresses the importance of transparency and brand alignment to avoid contributing to an inauthentic internet. The best-performing AI-generated content is co-created with human oversight and rigorously tested with real audiences.
And for synthetic audiences, advertisers have to ensure they are rooted in actual behavioural data and deliver real-world outcomes. Yu predicts a future where there will be a high premium on the human and authentic element, even as AI unlocks a whole new world of imaginative AI-generated content.
What if social platforms like Meta or TikTok become bot-dominated?
Yu advises clients to stay nimble and data-driven, reallocating budgets to owned media, direct-to-consumer channels and high-intent environments like search or retail media networks. He is confident, however, that platforms have strong incentives to combat bot activity.
Compliance, though, is a critical bottleneck for large brands. “Every new asset must be reviewed for brand safety, legal requirements and regulatory rules,” Yu explains, a process that can take weeks or months. Smartly is actively working on solutions that combine AI-powered creative generation with automated compliance checks to unlock true scale.
This presents a unique opportunity for brands willing to innovate. AI-powered content, when aligned with core brand values and subject to rigorous human oversight, can unlock unprecedented levels of personalisation and creative scale, allowing businesses to forge deeper, more relevant connections in a noisy digital world.
Looking ahead, Yu anticipates that user privacy regulations will reshape ad fraud prevention. While data restrictions might challenge traditional detection methods, they will also encourage the development of privacy-compliant solutions.
He foresees industry collaboration leading to standardised practices that balance privacy concerns with the need for fraud prevention. This ultimately prioritises ecosystem trust, which depends on ensuring engagement is real, measurable and brand-safe.
