Eye On A.I. · Oct 30, 2026 · 56m · 46m saved
With Jeff Lunsford, CEO of Tealium
Photo via tealium.com
About 20% of the traffic reaching Tealium's customers' websites is now AI agents rather than people. Jeff Lunsford, CEO of Tealium, told Craig Smith on Eye On A.I. that this traffic brings in about 38% more revenue per session than human visitors do.
The common worry is that agents will make websites irrelevant. Jeff's view is the opposite: agents still come in through the website, they read a layer of data people never see, and the companies that prepare that layer will win their business.
"The future is going to be wild, but humans are not going to go away. Your traffic is going to grow. Probably 50% of it by mid next year will be agentic, but that doesn't mean your human traffic got cut in half." — Jeff Lunsford
Jeff's company sits underneath the customer systems of 10 of the world's largest banks and six of the ten largest telecom companies, and processes about 20 billion events a day.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 56 minutes of audio, 10 minutes of reading.
Here are the 13 numbers that matter.
Key Takeaways
AI agents are about 20% of inbound web traffic for Tealium's customers, and Jeff expects 50% within a year
That traffic converts at about 38% more revenue per session than human traffic
Agents add to human traffic rather than replacing it, as phones and the internet did not replace stores
Real-time data converts 30% to 200% better than delayed data, Jeff says
A data warehouse holds yesterday's picture, which an agent needs in real time
Companies that block agent checkout will lose AI-native customers, who will send their agent elsewhere
Connecting to ad platforms' conversion APIs lifts return on ad spend about 25% on average
One car dealer tripled its lead-to-sale conversion from 10% to 30% after fixing its data
1. Agents Are 20% of Traffic
Jeff opened with the numbers Tealium sees across its customers. About one in five visits to their websites now comes from an AI agent acting for a person, and those visits are worth more.
Agent traffic brings in about 38% more revenue per session than human traffic
"This agentic traffic is converting at about 38% more revenue per session than the human traffic is. Our customers today, about 20% of their inbound traffic is inbound agents, not humans." — Jeff Lunsford
The 20% needs context. Bots made up about 40% of web traffic before generative AI arrived, so the agent share is a share of the remaining, legitimate traffic. Jeff said it is human traffic now handled by agents.
"Even before AI, 40% of their traffic was bots. What used to be human traffic is now agentic traffic." — Jeff Lunsford
