Enterprise losses from artificially inflated traffic to drop

A study from Juniper Research indicates that global enterprise losses attributed to Artificially Inflated Traffic (AIT) are expected to reduce by 55% from 2024 to 2029.

The research highlights that losses peaked at USD $2.1 billion in 2023 due to AIT, which involves fraudulent A2P SMS traffic artificially increasing messaging volumes, thereby imposing costs on businesses for non-beneficial communications. This decline is partly attributed to A2P SMS traffic migration, the primary driver behind the expected reduction.

According to the report "Global AIT Prevention Market 2024-2029," excessive SMS termination costs resulting from AIT have prompted enterprises to consider alternate methods for mobile authentication. These include Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and Rich Communications Services (RCS). The study projects that global A2P SMS traffic will decrease from 1.9 trillion in 2023 to under 1.5 trillion by 2029, diminishing the financial incentive for AIT fraudsters and consequently reducing enterprise losses.

The study advocates for enterprises to counteract AIT at its source. AIT prevention vendors must collaborate closely with businesses to authenticate One-Time Password (OTP) requests before they reach Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). The research found that automated bots contribute significantly to AIT, and implementing preventative measures at the point of origin can prevent such traffic from burdening SMS networks.

Research Author Georgia Allen commented, "Traditional CAPTCHA mechanisms are no longer adequately blocking intelligent AI bots from requesting OTPs. Click monitoring and behavioural analysis will enhance an enterprise's ability to detect bots and reduce AIT fraud before the SMS request."

The research suite from Juniper Research provides a comprehensive evaluation of the AIT prevention market, including forecasts and market analysis for 60 countries. The dataset encompasses over 16,800 market statistics over five years and features a Country Readiness Index and a Competitor Leaderboard.