Will AI Agents Create the Next Data Traffic Tsunami?

Let’s dissect the network like a patient on the table, tracing, layer by layer, how AI agents generate traffic from radio access at the edge to the deepest arteries inside data centers

From Web Pages to Video to AI Agents: The Next Traffic Wave?

Every major wave of internet traffic growth has had a culprit. In the 2000s, it was the humble web page, as millions of users began clicking, browsing, and refreshing their way into the online world. In the 2010s, it was video streaming, which turned the internet into a global delivery system for movies, live sports, and TikTok clips, accounting for more than two-thirds of global data.

Now, a new “user” is emerging, not human at all, but the AI agent. Unlike people, agents don’t rest or binge-watch in the evenings. They run continuously, generating requests, retrieving data, and exchanging information with other machines. Cisco’s CEO Chuck Robbins warns that this could keep traffic “consistently high,” while backbone operators like Lumen and optical vendors like Ciena are already bracing for surges between data centers.

The industry is asking: Will AI agents trigger the next data tsunami?

To answer, we need to dissect the network like a patient on the table, tracing where traffic is created, how it flows, and which layers will feel the pressure. At the edge, video still dominates. In the core, AI queries are already stressing caches and peering points. And deep inside the data-center interconnects, exponential growth is building, a storm in the guts of the network.

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Access Layer: Why AI Agents Won’t Break Your Radio

Every great wave of internet traffic has announced itself first at the edge of the network. In the early 2000s, the sudden popularity of websites pushed DSL and 3G links to their limits. A decade later, streaming video transformed broadband into a one-way delivery pipe, forcing operators to re-engineer access networks around Netflix and YouTube. Today, the edge remains dominated by one thing: video.

The numbers are staggering. According to Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report, global mobile networks carried 172 exabytes of data per month in Q1 2025, up 19% in a single year. Nearly three-quarters of that traffic is video, and Ericsson expects the share to rise above 80% by 2030. Cisco echoes the same pattern in its internet forecast, estimating that video already accounts for more than four-fifths of all IP traffic worldwide. Sandvine, which measures actual packet flows, adds another layer of detail: on fixed broadband, 65% of peak traffic is video streaming, and on mobile networks, TikTok alone represents 17% of downstream traffic in some markets. In short, video is the gravitational force shaping the access layer.