AI Agent Detection Is Here: cside Launches a Toolkit to Identify and Govern Agentic Browser Traffic

AI Agent Detection Is Here: cside Launches a Toolkit to Identify and Govern Agentic Browser Traffic

“Bot traffic” used to be mostly cloud-hosted scripts hammering endpoints.

Now there’s a new category to deal with: agentic traffic — AI systems acting through browsers (including extensions) that may originate from real consumer devices.

On Feb 5, 2026, website security company cside announced an AI Agent Detection toolkit that it says can identify agentic browsers and behavior, then let websites tailor what those agents can access and do.

If you run ecommerce, marketplaces, travel booking, or any site where automation can either help (legit purchasing) or harm (scraping, fraud, inventory scalping), this is a signal worth paying attention to.

What cside announced

In its launch release, cside describes AI Agent Detection as a toolkit that:

• •“immediately identifies agentic traffic and behavior”
• •detects both traditional headless browsers and AI-powered browsers / extensions running on consumer devices
• •enables companies to govern which AI agents can interact with their website, what they’re allowed to do, and when human validation is required

Source: GlobeNewswire press release

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/05/3232706/0/en/cside-Launches-AI-Agent-Detection-Toolkit-Enabling-Websites-to-Block-Agentic-Attackers-and-Guide-Agentic-Shoppers.html

cside positions this as an important gap in legacy defenses: traditional bot detection often focuses on “are you a human?” signals and cloud automation patterns, which may not cleanly flag agents operating inside normal consumer environments.

What it claims it can detect (examples)

cside’s release includes example categories it claims it can detect, including:

• •automated browsers (headless-style automation)
• •AI-powered browsers and agentic AI browser extensions

It also claims it can:

• •identify agentic behavior from both cloud infrastructure and consumer devices
• •provide observability into agentic traffic patterns
• •be deployed via an SDK and dynamically modify page elements an agent can interact with

Source: GlobeNewswire press release

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/05/3232706/0/en/cside-Launches-AI-Agent-Detection-Toolkit-Enabling-Websites-to-Block-Agentic-Attackers-and-Guide-Agentic-Shoppers.html

cside also has a short product page framing the shift as moving from “are you human?” to “are you acting on behalf of a human?”

Source: cside product page

https://cside.com/solutions/ai-agent-detection

Why this likely has search demand (and why it’s not just security)

This topic has unusually clear intent keywords that tend to produce organic traffic:

• •“AI agent detection”
• •“agentic browser traffic”
• •“how to detect AI agents on my website”
• •“bot detection for AI agents”
• •“prevent AI agent scraping / fraud / scalping”

It also sits at the intersection of three hot areas:

1) AI agents (new behavior patterns)

2) ecommerce ops (inventory, pricing, checkout)

3) security/compliance (fraud, abuse, ToS enforcement)

Practical use cases (based on the announcement)

The release suggests several ways businesses might use a detection + governance layer:

1) Allow “helpful” agents, block harmful automation

Instead of blocking all automation, cside’s CEO frames the approach as:

> “agents aren’t inherently bad, bad actions are bad.”

Source: GlobeNewswire press release

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/05/3232706/0/en/cside-Launches-AI-Agent-Detection-Toolkit-Enabling-Websites-to-Block-Agentic-Attackers-and-Guide-Agentic-Shoppers.html

In practice, the promise is segmentation:

• •allow shopping assistants that behave like legitimate purchasers
• •block scalpers, scrapers, vulnerability probing, and card testing

2) Modify site experiences for agents vs humans

cside claims the toolkit can:

• •remove or modify page elements agents can interact with
• •enable custom website experiences by agent type

That suggests patterns like:

• •hide limited inventory SKUs from certain automated flows
• •add step-up verification on risky actions
• •throttle access to pricing endpoints for suspected monitoring bots

3) Add “human validation” at the moment it matters

A key phrase in the announcement is deciding when human validation is required.

That’s the actual lever most websites will want:

• •keep browsing friction low
• •enforce friction only at high-risk moments (checkout, coupon abuse, account changes)

What not to assume (important)

This is a press release and early product positioning. A few things are not established from the sources:

• •exact detection methodology (signals, fingerprints, behavioral models)
• •false positive/negative rates in real traffic
• •compatibility with common bot mitigation stacks (Cloudflare, Akamai, etc.)
• •how durable detection is as agents adapt

So: treat the announcement as a market signal and a product worth evaluating, not as proof that the problem is “solved.”

Evaluation checklist (if you run a website)

If you’re considering agent detection tooling (cside or otherwise), here’s the short list of questions that matter:

1) Can you distinguish agent types and intents?

• •“Automation” alone isn’t the risk; intent is.

2) What actions can you gate dynamically?

• •Can you step up verification for checkout/account changes without breaking UX?

3) How transparent are the signals?

• •Can your security team audit why traffic was classified as agentic?

4) Can you run it in monitor-only mode first?

• •You want observability before enforcement.

5) Does it integrate cleanly with your existing stack?

• •WAF/CDN, fraud tooling, analytics, and internal logging.

Bottom line

Agentic browser traffic is becoming a real operational category: sometimes helpful, often risky.

cside’s AI Agent Detection toolkit is one of the first explicit attempts to give websites visibility and governance controls for this new wave of automation — especially where agents may operate through consumer browsers and extensions rather than obvious cloud bots.

If your business depends on predictable checkout behavior, pricing integrity, or content licensing, it’s worth tracking — and testing with real traffic before you enforce anything.

Sources

• •cside (GlobeNewswire): https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/05/3232706/0/en/cside-Launches-AI-Agent-Detection-Toolkit-Enabling-Websites-to-Block-Agentic-Attackers-and-Guide-Agentic-Shoppers.html
• •cside product page: https://cside.com/solutions/ai-agent-detection